


Illegal Magic Pt 3

by QueenCoeurl



Series: Illegal Magic AU [3]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Being Lost, Blood and Gore, Cults, Explicit Language, Gen, Graphic Description, I Can't Believe It's Not Cannibalism, Language, Magic, Murder, Urban Fantasy, illegal magic au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 22:56:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8227603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenCoeurl/pseuds/QueenCoeurl
Summary: What should have been a normal night goes terribly wrong when Trevor gets kidnapped by some cultists. AH goes on a rescue mission and finds themselves far from home and lost in deep woods inhabited by less than friendly locals. Yet Geoff and Jack's main concern lies with Ryan: Just what will he be willing to do if he finds himself hungry enough?





	

  The dining room was brightly lit and opened up to both the kitchen and living room. Large windows let in the fresh mid-morning sunlight, and the minimal modern décor only further brightened the space. Light woods, steel, and enamel whites were the theme, and the house itself was only a couple years old, adding to the comfortable contemporary atmosphere.

  The only anomaly was the dining room table. Across its surface were spread out a wide array of herbs, spices, dried flowers, feathers, small bones, and vials filled with an assortment of coloured liquids.

  Meg was seated at the head of the table. She was resting her chin on her elbows and had her full attention on Ryan who was seated next to her.

  Ryan’s attention was entirely focused on the task that Meg had instructed he do. On the table before him was spread out a small square of cloth and he was inspecting a dried up sprig of some type of woody plant.

  He frowned and turned to Meg, “Is this one Rowan?”

  Meg shook her head, “That’s Elm.”

  Ryan exhaled and leaned back in his seat, “I appreciate you trying to teach me, but I’m going to need a bit more direction here.” He looked to her, “Also it’s not like I’m trying to learn witchcraft; I just want to get my apartment furnished.”

  Meg chuckled, “Yes, but I’m in charge of decorating your place, and I want it done my way; the proper way.

  In order to make any space a home, it needs to be a blank canvas. That means it needs to be purified. Who knows what sort of nasty things currently call that old radio factory _their_ home. We need to get rid of them and any residual bad energy the past has left there.”

  “And that means I have to craft potpourri?” Ryan asked with a teasing smile.

  Meg gently slapped his shoulder in mock anger, “These are spell bags. And I’m having you make them because it’s your apartment. It’s not the same if I make them for you. Each one is supposed to hold your wishes for the future and then be sealed with a specific blessing for your home.”

  “So why am I holding a twig?”

  Meg sighed and reached over to grab a different branch, she held it up, “This is Rowan. It’s one of the strongest protective plants. It guards against evil, protects against enchantment, and can lead lost travellers home.” She broke off a small piece and placed it on the cloth in front of Ryan.

  “How can it possibly lead people home? It’s a tree.” Ryan pointed out.

  “I don’t make the rules.” Meg was quick to retort. She placed the Rowan branch down, “Do you know what blackberries look like?” she prodded.

  “Yeah, I do.” Ryan reached out and grabbed a small dish of dried berries. He pulled out a blackberry and held it up, “Good?”

  “Put it in.” Meg pointed at the cloth before him, “Blackberries are also protective, but they mostly focus on good health.

  Next get the catnip and bloodroot.”

  Ryan immediately recognised the catnip as it was tightly sealed in a ziplock bag. He picked it up, and the sound of crinkling plastic immediately summoned Smee.

  Ryan turned at the kitten’s frantic footsteps as he ran across the wood floor towards them. Smee jumped into Ryan’s lap and mewed expectantly, already staring at the catnip in his hand.

  Penny got excited at the commotion and sprung to her feet from her position sleeping beneath Meg’s chair. She began to bark at Smee and Ryan, not wanting to be left out if there was going to be treats.

  “Maybe catnip was a bad idea.” Ryan couldn’t help but laugh.

  Meg got out of her chair and grabbed the dachshund, desperately trying to hush her, “Let’s leave that one to last then! Smee will only tear it apart.” She laughed, “I didn’t think this through.”

  “So which one is bloodroot then?” Ryan turned back to the table, and placed a protective hand over Smee to prevent him from jumping up onto all their ingredients.

  Meg gave a kiss to Penny in her arms, and it quieted her, “White flower, eight petals, yellow middle and one big leaf.” She explained to Ryan.

  Ryan found it easily and held it up, “So what does this one do?”

  “Invites happiness and love.” Meg informed him and then carefully returned Penny to the floor.

  He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, “Love?”

  Meg grinned, “Yeah.” The grin turned devilish, “You need all the help you can get, honestly.”

  Ryan mock frowned, “Hey…”

  _I doubt some flower is going to do much._ Demon remarked.

  She chuckled, “But in all seriousness, love takes many forms and is always a good thing to have. We only want the best for your place.”

  Ryan added the bloodroot to his pile, “Am I supposed to be saying or thinking something while I do this?”

  “Just positive thoughts about your new place. Feelings of comfort and security. Happiness and warmth.” Meg waved her hand at Ryan almost mystically.

  “What next?” Ryan absent mindedly pet Smee as he asked.

  “Chamomile, mint, and passion flower.” Meg directed.

  Ryan put his hands down on his lap and cocked his head, “This is sounding more and more like a tea. I’m not going to have to drink it am I?”

  Meg burst out laughing and Ryan grinned.

  Still smiling, Meg grabbed the ingredients for Ryan, and then grabbed a fourth, “This one is nice to have too.” She spooned out a small amount of seeds, “It’s caraway. It wards off thieves, so I like adding it in as well.”

  “I don’t think it’s ever stopped a grocery store shoplifter, or they wouldn’t need cameras.” Ryan muttered.

  That made Meg laugh again, “Ok smartass, I get it, you aren’t big on witchcraft, but just let me have fun will ya?”

  “Hey, if a sack of dried plant bits will make my life better, I think it’s a small price to pay.” Ryan responded with a huff of a laugh.

  _I just hope all this ‘protection from evil’ doesn’t end up including us._ Demon was worried that they would magically lock themselves out of their own apartment.

  It was a good point. Ryan cleared his throat, “So, uh, in regards to all this evil protection stuff,”

  “What’s up?” Meg tilted her head in curiosity.

  “Well by some standards – or I guess most standards – Demon is pretty evil, and we can’t exactly be separated.

  Do I need to worry about that?”

  Meg seemed to think it over, “It protects you so unless Demon wants to hurt you, it shouldn’t have any effect. If anything it might even give you more control over him, but that’s a big ‘might’. Jack and Geoff still haven’t figured out what he is, have they?”

  Ryan shook his head.

  “Yeah so, without knowing I can’t say for sure. A small spell bag isn’t anything like a proper ward or devil trap. Even if it did work on you or Demon, you could still actively break through its influence. Just as it can’t protect you against someone who has specifically decided to do you harm. That kind of protection takes a lot more work. This spell bag is more generic.”

  “So it’s more deterrent than anything else?” Ryan asked.

  “Yeah, think of it like a little magnet; pushing away bad and bringing in good.” Meg explained.

  “I’ll take what I can get.” Ryan smiled, “I always thought cleansing required burning sage or incense or something.”

  “Oh, the spell bag isn’t a cleanse; its job is to keep the place clean once we do the cleanse.” Meg clarified, “I will totally be burning some sage at your place.”

  “Damn,” Ryan groaned, “How long to get rid of that smell?”

  Meg chuckled, “It’s not a bad smell, but if it really bothers you we can air out the place after. You don’t have any carpets or real furniture that could hold the scent, so it will disappear pretty easy.”

  “Just give me a heads up so I can move my clothes out before you start lighting up.”

  “Only if you promise to throw those clothes out.” Meg put her hands on her hips.

  Ryan rolled his eyes.

  “Seriously. Your look needs saving before it’s too late.”

 

  Out towards the front of the house the sound of a door unlocking caught their attention. Smee and Penny immediately raced over to eagerly greet whoever was arriving.

  Meg perked up, “That must be Gavin.” She stood up and shouted, “We’re in the dining room!”

  It was indeed Gavin who walked out from the hall and into the kitchen. Preoccupied with his phone he asked, “Oh, who’s her–” he looked up to see Ryan and froze.

  “Hi.” Ryan tentatively waved, not blind to the reaction.

  “Meg, why is Ryan in our house?” Gavin’s eyes didn’t leave Ryan.

  Meg noticed his apprehension and pouted, “He’s here because I invited him over. He’s my friend, Gav, and I’m helping him with his new place.” She spoke slowly.

  “Alright,” Gavin nodded, “But I don’t fancy having murderers know where I live, and whatever that bloody damned thing in his head is, it knows everythin’ he does.”

  Meg waved his concern away, “He’s in full control of it.” She turned to Ryan, “Isn’t that right?”

  Ryan nodded, “But I understand why Gavin’s nervous.” He pushed his chair away from the table, “If it’s any comfort, Demon lost all interest in Meg the second we learned she’s a magic user.”

   “Really?” Meg was intrigued.

  “Magic users are too much trouble.” Ryan shrugged.

  “But he was interested in killing her when you first met, then!” Gavin pointed out.

  “Demon is interested in everyone. He doesn’t discriminate.” Ryan crossed his arms, “But he can’t do shit with me in charge, so it’s fine.”

  “Yeah, but you lose control of him sometimes, don’t you? That’s how people die!” Gavin argued, “What happens if I piss him off? Next chance he gets he comes for me!”

  _Don’t think so highly of yourself. As if I would go out of my way to hunt you down._ Demon urged Ryan to pass on his thoughts to Gavin.

  “Demon says you aren’t important enough to him to warrant it.” Ryan tried to make it less offensive, then added, “And he’s not lying – he can’t lie to me.”

  “Oh goodie.” Gavin threw up his arms and let them drop back down to his sides.

  “Calm down, Gav. I can handle myself.” Meg told him.

 

  Gavin took a moment to breathe and looked at both Ryan and Meg. He shook his head, but dropped his argument.

  Ryan stood, “I should get going anyway.” He stated and began to organize some of the items on the table in an effort to aid in cleaning the mess he and Meg had made.

  Frowning, Gavin thought it over. It really wasn’t Ryan’s fault that Demon was the way he was. He wasn’t being fair to Ryan.

  “Hold on,” Gavin told Ryan, “Michael an’ Lindsay are coming over soon. You should stay. Could be fun.”

  Ryan seemed hesitant and a little suspicious, “No, you’re right: it wasn’t fair of me to let Demon know where you live. Besides, it would only be awkward.” He’d been informed that how Lindsay had witnessed Demon’s murder was through the eyes of the victim. Her hanging around him would be like hanging out with the guy that had tortured and killed you. He couldn’t imagine it being a comfortable scenario.

  Demon was indifferent to the whole situation.

  “Oh come on,” Meg egged him on with a smile, “You can’t let Demon force you to be a loner forever.”

  Gavin shared her smile, “Yeah! And we’re going to have bevs, order in some food – it’ll be great!”

  The mention of free food had both Demon and Rye suddenly reconsider, “Are you sure it’s fine?”

  Both Meg and Gavin nodded.

  “We can finish up your spell bag before they arrive, and then we were planning on playing videogames and Michael said he’s bringing his edition of Cards Against Humanity with all the expansion packs. It’s going to be a blast!” Meg nearly pranced back to the dining room table to seat herself again.

  Ryan gave a crooked half-smile and sat back down. He looked at the pile of plants, “So what next?”

  “That depends now on what you want to add in. As I said, I like caraway for anti-theft, but maybe you want something to protect against flooding? Fire? Weather? Pests? Really whatever.” Meg shrugged.

  “Can we just jam it all in?” Ryan asked.

  Meg laughed, “We totally could, but the more things you protect against, the weaker each individual protection is. So if you care for something more than the rest, then focus on that. Like if you were a smoker, fire protection would be a good idea.”

  Ryan nodded in understanding, “Ah.”

  Gavin joined them at the table, “You're up on the second floor of Geoff’s place, right?”

  “Yeah, the old factory place.” Ryan confirmed.

  “So maybe flooding shouldn’t be a concern for you. Any pipes break and it’s a downstairs problem.”

  Ryan agreed with Gavin, “Also maybe scrap any weather protection. I basically live in a concrete box: not much is gonna happen to it.”

  “But you have a whole wall that is nothing but window…” Meg thought about it, “Those would easily shatter if anything hits them.”

  Ryan leaned back and scratched his chin, “Ok, but in that case I think it would be more likely that some punk kid throws a stone through. Do you have an anti-vandal plant?”

  “Uhh…” Meg’s eyes began to scan the spread, “I don’t think there’s anything here specifically for that… but vandalism would just be misfortune right? We’re already guarding against that pretty well.”

  “Is it really misfortune though?” Gavin asked.

  “I’d say it is. Unless of course they are targeting your house specifically.” Meg replied.

  “Screw it. Just throw the catnip in there and let’s call it done.” Ryan felt he didn’t need anything else.

  Meg chuckled, and then spent a moment instructing him on how to close and seal his spell bag with a silk ribbon.

  Ryan tied the ribbon tightly and double knotted it ‘just in case’.

  _Look at you; doing arts and crafts._

  Ryan was quick to respond to Demon, _It makes her happy._

_So?_

  Ryan ensured his irritation was pointedly felt by Demon.

  _You’re letting these people worm their way in. You can’t trust them. Just as they can never trust you._ Demon responded, _They don’t understand us – they can’t. Don’t fall for it._

Ryan exhaled a muted sigh, _I know. You don’t have to keep warning me._

Meg took notice of how Ryan appeared to fall quiet and introspective, “Everything alright?”

  Ryan looked up at her and smiled, “Just nervous.” He wasn’t completely lying. His apprehension towards seeing Lindsay again was growing.

  “Nervous?” Gavin was surprised, “About what?”

  “Well, Lindsay. I mean it is technically like I killed her, as least in her mind, and now to just hang out without Geoff or Jack around,” Ryan shrugged, “I don’t know. It just feels… uncomfortable.”

  “Oh is this that murder that had them kidnap and try to exorcise you?” Meg asked and received a nod from both Ryan and Gavin, “Well it wasn’t her that died, and it wasn’t you that did the killing.” She reinforced.

  “Yeah, it was Demon.” Gavin nodded to Ryan.

  “We share the same body.” Ryan gestured at himself, “It was these hands that did it.”

  Gavin and Meg shared a worried look, knowing that they had stumbled into a sensitive topic for Ryan.

  “It still wasn’t you.” Meg insisted.

  _Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy it,_ Demon was sure to remind him, _feeling that muscle tear, that warm crimson covering our hands, the smell of blood and crack of bone…_ Just remembering the kill had Demon’s bloodlust swelling, _Did Geoff ever tell them about that security guard we tore the heart out of?_ Malicious joy bubbled forth, _Man, did he ever scream!_

  Ryan shook his head, “You know what, I was right; this is a bad idea. I should leave before they get here.” He stood and pocketed the spell bag, “Thank you for having me. I’ll take good care this, and text you tomorrow about setting up a time when you can do your whole ‘sage burning’ thing.”

  “Don’t leave, Rye.” Gavin left his seat.

  The use of that name had Ryan falter. Only Demon called him Rye, and yes, he had told everyone that that was the name he had, but hearing it used felt… _weird._ It was illogical, but Ryan felt as it Gavin had no right to call him by that name. Gavin didn’t know him – not like Demon did.

  “You’re staying.” Meg pushed back her chair. She walked over to Gavin and looked at Ryan, “Demon doesn’t define you – isn’t that something you said yourself?”

  “Yeah, but–” Ryan was immediately interrupted.

  “No excuses. You need to learn to take control of your life back from him.” Meg told him sternly, “And that starts tonight by having a normal night over at friend’s place with good people, good food, and good fun.”

  Ryan wouldn’t have called them his friends – not at this point, at least – but Meg’s use of the word did warm him.

  _God, are you ever pathetic!_ Demon spat at Ryan, _We don’t have friends, and never will! We don’t need them either!_

_I have friends,_ Ryan corrected him, _You even said so to Geoff._

That sent Demon into laughter, _Sure ya do – they make friends with who they think you are, that beautiful lie you tell yourself and everyone you meet: ‘Oh I’m just some nice guy who’s victim to a monster inside my head’. Makes them feel nice and sorry for you._

_You’re as much a part of that monster as I am, Rye._

_And no one is friends with a monster._

  Ryan curled his hands into fists and steeled himself. This was not the time or place to be having _this_ argument again. He took a deep breath to regain his composure before speaking, “Ok, if you really want me to stay, I’ll stay. But I’m going to ask Lindsay if she’s ok with me being here, and if she isn’t, then I’m going to leave.”

  “Lindsay is great. You have nothing to worry about.” Meg assured him.

Ryan shifted his weight. He was still unconvinced. If their positions had been reversed, he knew he wouldn’t be one to so easily let it go.

  Then again, he knew how to hold a grudge. It was something he had to personally work on, but Demon made that difficult. Constant whispers of just how that person had hurt him and just what Ryan could do to them in return. In short, he didn’t forgive easy, but knew he should at least _try._

  _Hey if our positions were reversed, we would have just killed her instead of trying to help her. This situation would have never come up._ Demon commented.

  _And that there is our problem._ Ryan replied.

  Gavin wanted to change the topic, “We usually order pizza; what kind do you usually get?”

  Ryan latched onto the topic change, “I can devour a whole Hawaiian given the chance.” He gave a soft laugh, and saw Gavin wrinkle his nose, “But I know that not everyone is fine with pineapple on pizza. I’ll eat pretty much anything.” He shrugged.

  “Are you fine with olives or mushrooms?” Gavin asked, “Michael will throw almost everything onto a pizza and still eat it.”

  Ryan opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the doorbell ringing.

  Penny ran to the door barking happily.

  “That’s probably them.” Meg told them and did a half-jog down the hall towards the front door.

  Ryan and Gavin could hear Michael and Lindsay greet Meg and come inside.

  Gavin looked at Ryan and it was clear he felt awkward having Ryan just standing in the dining room, “You wanna go sit in the living room?” He asked him and gestured to the couches in front of a large TV.

  Ryan appeared surprised at the fact that he was still standing, doing nothing, and nodded. He quickly made his way to the living room as Meg entered with Michael and Lindsay.

  “Ryan’s over too!” Meg told the two as they noticed him.

  Ryan gave a small clearly uncomfortable wave, “Hey.”

  Michael blinked in surprise and then looked to Lindsay.

  Lindsay looked at Meg, “Oh I didn’t realize you knew him too. Are you guys friends?” she asked.

  “I’ve been helping him with his apartment, and he helped me get Smee for Gavin.” Meg told her.

  Ryan felt like Meg had omitted the most important part, “She knows about Demon too.”

  Lindsay cocked her head and seemed to think something over, “Well if everyone knows, then that makes things less awkward.” She moved over to the large sectional couch and dropped down onto it. She smiled and looked at everyone else still stiffly standing around, “Woof,” she huffed, “Guys, chill. I know it wasn’t Ryan. It wasn’t nice feeling death, but it wasn’t him that did it.”

  All eyes went to Ryan who was still hesitant to move, “You sure it’s fine?” he asked meekly.

  “Yeah, I mean: fuck you, Demon.” Lindsay grinned, “But you’re alright.”

  That had Ryan laugh, and with that laugh the tension in the air dissipated. Everyone plopped themselves down onto the couch.

  Meg corralled their pizza preferences and placed the order as Michael pulled out his Bigger Blacker Box and began to deal out everyone’s hands.

  The sectional couch was U-shaped with a square coffee table placed in the middle. Lindsay and Michael sat next to each other on the left, with Michael next to Gavin who sat with Meg in the middle section. Ryan sat on the right section of the U and reached across the table to grab the hand Michael had dealt him.

  Ryan hadn’t played before, but it was a quick game to explain and soon they were all howling with laughter.

  At some point Michael had gotten everyone beer, while Meg had tossed Ryan two cans of diet Coke.

  Demon took particular joy in some of the cards and combinations, and it only made Ryan further enjoy their game. Only one card really threw him, and Meg was quick to notice his eyebrow jump upwards.

  Meg laughed, “Ok, Rye, what card could possibly have _you_ confused?”

  There was the use of ‘Rye’ again. Ryan chuckled and flipped the card around, “’Bees?’” He exaggerated the intonation of the question.

  “I fucking love that card.” Lindsay laughed into her beer.

  They continued to play through the pizza, nearly choking several times. Gavin managed to topple what was his third beer, which only made Michael shout at him.

  While shouting, Michael’s gesturing knocked Lindsay’s beer from her hands.

  That had Lindsay shout out and Meg ran for paper towels nearly doubled over snickering.

  Ryan’s hand was on his breast as he laughed and leaned further across the couch. He ensured that his Coke wouldn’t spill. He was onto a fourth can.

  Meg tossed a roll of paper towel at Gavin. He squawked as it bounced off of his chest and he caught it on the rebound.

Ryan straightened and wiped his eyes as the group began tearing up paper to soak up the mess, “Need help?” he moved forward as he offered.

  “Nah, we’re fine.” Gavin waved him back with a wet paper. With the four cleaning while partially drunk, it probably wasn’t the best job, but it would suffice for now.

  Ryan leaned back and felt his phone go off in his pocket. Curious, he pulled it out and looked at the screen.

  Geoff had texted him, “ _Need you over here ASAP. Not really work related._ ” A second text arrived with an address.

  Ryan looked up at Gavin and wondered if he had also gotten a text. He turned back to his phone and replied: “ _Be there soon. Should I tell Gavin?”_

Geoff was quick to respond, “ _Only need you and Jack. Wear stuff that you can get dirty.”_

  The back of Ryan’s neck prickled with goosebumps at that, “ _Dirty with what?!”_ He was having such a good time, and didn’t want it marred. If Geoff was expecting a fight, Ryan wanted no part of it.

  The phone buzzed with Geoff’s reply, _“Some kind of goo? I don’t know wtf it is”_

  That had eased Ryan’s anxiety and intrigued him, _“Goo?”_

_“Just get over here!”_ Ryan could feel Geoff’s irritation through the text.

  Ryan put away his phone and stood with a sigh, “I need to head out, but this was a lot of fun.”

  “Aww, why?” Gavin asked.

  “You’re free to stay as late as you want.” Meg added.

  Ryan shook his head, “No, Geoff just messaged me. He needs me to deal with, I don’t know, he says it’s goo of some kind.”

  “Goo?” Michael scrunched up his face.

  “Gross.” Lindsay stated.

  “Good luck.” Gavin nodded at him, “You should come over next time we have a hang out.”

  “Thank you.” Ryan went to leave the room, “Enjoy the rest of the night!” he smiled and departed.

  There was a chorus of “Bye!” from the living room as Ryan opened the front door and stepped out into the night.

  The porch light flickered on as Ryan moved down to his little battered sedan parked on the driveway. As he rummaged around his pocket for his keys, he realized that now he could easily afford a better car.

  He could afford a lot of things.

  And that had only been ONE paycheck.

  He got inside and started the engine, wondering how he was going to do his taxes. This wasn’t legal income, and it was a huge amount of money. How could he even go about spending it without getting into trouble? Clearly the others had found a way to do so, and while they didn’t flash extravagance (from what he had seen so far at least) they did all own relatively nice things.

  _Unfortunately, it’s not like we can kill The Man,_ Demon joked and got a snort from Ryan.

 

  The drive was easy enough. Geoff’s address had been to a small industrial building. Half of the building belonged to a large engine mechanic, and the other half was unbranded.

  Ryan pulled his sedan around a few large semi-trucks in various states of repair and saw two trucks that he recognised as Jack’s and Geoff’s. They were parked in front of a small entrance to the unbranded side of the building, so Ryan pulled in next to them.

  The only light on the external of the building was one lamp attached to the metal siding just above the main garage entrance on the mechanic’s side. This side was almost entirely dark, receiving only what light filtered over from the neighbour.

  The door was a heavy and thick metal fire door with a number pad above the knob. Ryan tried the knob and found it was locked. He wasn’t surprised, and used the side of his fist to pound the door loud enough to be heard.

 

  There was no sound to be heard from inside, but after a few moments, Geoff pushed the door open.

  “Sup,” Geoff greeted, and held the door for Ryan to enter, “Come on in.”

 

  The door opened directly into the vast open space. There were no rooms or walls, but plenty of metal shelving at the far end of what Ryan now realised must be a warehouse. The half of the warehouse closer to the entrance was mostly clear, and that let Ryan see how the concrete floor was covered in arcane symbols and magical circles. Some were painted, others were carved right into the floor, and they were so plentiful that most were almost touching.

 

  Geoff read Ryan’s expression as he stepped in, “We have to keep our shit safe somehow.” He chuckled and seemed to remember, “If any of them happen to work on you, just let us know and we’ll break it.”

  Ryan carefully followed Geoff and made a wide circle around what he recognised as a devil’s trap. It wasn’t the only one that he could see, but it looked like no more were in his path.

  Jack was waiting for them by one of the rows of metal shelving. Only a third of the shelves in the warehouse seemed to actually be holding anything, and almost everything was in boxes. The shelves Jack stood in front of appeared to have been covered in a thick cyan ooze. It was mucous-like and stringy, seemingly emanating from the middle shelf. The ooze draped downward over the lower shelves and onto the floor, but also had climbed up the vertical supports upwards as far as the shelving went.

  As Ryan approached he picked up a vaguely seaside scent coming from the goo. Due to how thick the ooze was, it was impossible to see what it was originating from.

  Jack nodded to Ryan in greeting and gestured to a pile of boxes on the ground a row over. The boxes were stained with the goo’s wet taint, “I moved everything I could get to, but we’ll have to make sure nothing got damaged.”

  Ryan wrinkled his nose, “So we don’t know what this is?”

  “Only that it’s magical.” Jack replied.

  Ryan looked at Geoff who was staring at the goo in disgust with his arms crossed, “Why did you need me?”

  “What? You expect Jack or I to touch it?” Geoff replied, “You can heal. It’s harder for us.”

  “What?!” Ryan shouted.

  Jack rolled his eyes, “Geoff,”

  “I want _somebody_ to touch it.” Geoff admitted, then explained, “We might not know what Demon is, but we know that because of him you’ve got some serious strength. We need to move all these other shelves and boxes away from this mess until we figure out how to clean it up.”

  Ryan nodded, “Ok, but how do we get Demon to help _clean?_ That strength is his and not mine.”

  Jack and Geoff exchanged a quick glance.

  Geoff uncrossed his arms, “Good point, but have _you_ tried maybe using it?”

  Jack looked at Geoff again, but this time it was a warning glare.

  Ryan scoffed in amusement and looked back at the mess, “Pretty sure it doesn’t work that way.”

  Geoff opened his mouth to urge Ryan to at least try, but he caught Jack’s glare, “Oh, well, I guess between the three of us, we’ll be able to get it to move.”

  Turning back, Ryan picked up on the tension between them. He raised a brow, “Is something wrong?”

  “Yeah, it is.” Jack spoke, “Geoff keeps trying to exploit Demon, but I’m against it until we know for sure what he is.”

  “It’s not _exploitation,_ Jack. I’m paying him. He’s strong; let’s put it to use.” Geoff shrugged, “Besides, we know he isn’t an actual demon.”

  Jack pouted. This was dangerous territory to tread right in front of Ryan, “No one controls Demon, but Demon.”

  “And no one controls Geoff, but Geoff.” Geoff argued.

  Ryan was quick to interject, “But you didn’t spend ten years in an institution because of it. I’m on Jack’s side.” He saw Jack nod, “For now.”

  “For now?” Jack was surprised by that addendum.

  Ryan shrugged, “Once Demon and I know what he is, then maybe we’ll know more about curbing his tendencies. He lashes out because I supress him, and I supress him because he lashes out. There could be a better way around it. Best situation being that Demon and I can get separated, and he gets to worry about his own hide.”

  Jack couldn’t help but give a small sad smile.

  Geoff seemed to lose the wind driving his argument and his shoulders loosened, “Maybe.” He nodded to Ryan.

  Not noticing their body language, Ryan looked at the soiled boxes, “So what do you guys store in here anyway?”

  Jack was happy with the change in topic, “Artefacts we can’t sell and random supplies.”

  “What determines if you can or can’t sell something?” Ryan was interested.

  “Usually because it’s damaged or missing pieces, but sometimes it’s just not something someone would ever buy.” Geoff explained.

  Jack elaborated, “Some stuff has curses that people just don’t want, or the item itself isn’t desirable. We end up picking up a lot of random pieces in this line of work, and we can’t really do anything about them other than keep them safe.”

  “I would have considered the Eyes of Anubis as having an undesirable curse.” Ryan pointed out, “And those sold for millions.”

  “They were also three millennia old and made of solid lapis.” Geoff reminded him, “It’s not some old gym sock that breaks the ankle of whoever wears it.”

  Ryan blinked, “Is that something you actually have here?”

  Both Geoff and Jack nodded.

  Ryan shook his head in disbelief, “Why…?”

  “Matt found it at a yard sale, but it’s hardly the weirdest thing we have. Curses make things hard to destroy, so it’s easier to just keep it somewhere where no one can get hurt.” Jack told him.

  “Only if you can’t sell it.” Geoff was sure to add, “Otherwise, it’s great.”

  “Do you have stuff that is blessed instead of cursed? Or whatever the opposite of cursed is?” Ryan asked, “Surely those would sell better.”

  “Don’t underestimate the power of revenge. But yes, beneficially enchanted items sell almost immediately. Which is why we never manage to hold a stock of them.” Jack spotted a push broom leaning against a shelf several rows down. He went over to grab it.

  “What did you find?” Geoff called after him.

  “A broom. I figure it will be better than using our hands.” Jack returned with the wooden handled broom.

  “Could we toss the gym sock at it? See if it breaks a non-existent ankle?” Ryan joked.

  Jack chuckled and held out the broom, “Who wants to do the honours?”

  “Ryan?” Geoff turned to him as he asked, “You’re new and haven’t dealt with magic much, wanna poke the mystery goo?”

  “Sure?” Ryan took the broom as it was handed to him. He grabbed it near the broom end and cautiously moved up to the mess.

  Ryan was sure to keep his distance and looked back at Geoff and Jack. They looked eager to see if anything would happen. Taking a breath, Ryan poked the surface of the goo with the end of the broomstick. It easily gave, and Ryan tried to push some of the slime aside. It stretched around the broom handle, covering it with the stringy sticky cyan.

  He pushed it further in hoping to hit something solid that could be the source of the mess, but the handle just kept on sinking deeper with no sign of stopping.

  “I think it’s goo all the way through.” Ryan told them.

  “It had to come from something.” Geoff replied, “Try going deeper.”

  “I don’t want to get any closer to it.” Ryan protested.

  “Then throw the broom?” Geoff suggested.

  “We might need it.” Jack interjected.

  Geoff didn’t appear to care, “It doesn’t take much to buy a new push broom.”

  Ryan pulled the broom back to change his grip on it. Long strings of slime remained on the broom handle. “Ew.” He uttered as he grabbed the broom lower down and readied himself to toss it like a spear.

  “Don’t break anything.” Geoff warned lightly.

  Ryan threw the broom.

  The slime swallowed the broom whole. The entire handle and brush disappeared beneath its surface without a trace.

  They were baffled and after taking a look behind the shelf they confirmed that it had not simply passed through it.

  Jack chuckled, “Well that can’t be good.”

  “The broom is just gone!” Ryan leaned trying to see if he could spot any sign of it beneath the surface of the goo.

  Geoff evaluated the scene, “At least it doesn’t look like it’s spreading? I’d want to try and see if it reacts to fire, but that would set off the sprinklers.”

  A bubble formed and began to grow where the broom had entered. It reached about half a foot in diameter before bursting with a light ‘pop’.

  “It’s like snot bubbles.” Geoff commented.

  There was a sudden whoosh of air and something was launched out of the goo. It streaked through the air and crashed into the far wall with a metal and wood ‘CLANG’.

  The three of them started cursing and ducked defensively, sprinting away from the slime.

  Composing themselves when no further projectiles came, it was Ryan who ran over to see what the object had been.

  “It’s the fucking broom!” He announced as soon as he made out the slime covered shape. Other than being covered in the mystery snot, it appeared completely undamaged.

  The other two jogged over to inspect.

  “Fuck,” Geoff breathed the word and looked to Jack hoping that maybe he would know something.

  Jack was clearly baffled, “I don’t know, man.”

  They all turned to look back at the ooze. It looked no different than it had before.

  “Do you think it’s sentient?” Geoff asked, “And it got pissed at Ryan skewering it?”

  “The broom disappeared inside of it completely…” Jack though it over, “Maybe it’s a portal, and something on the other side didn’t appreciate having a broom thrown at it?”

  “Is that what portals look like?!” Ryan’s mental image of a portal had been considerably different. 

  Demon wasn’t feeling anything malicious from the slime, but he was just as wary and confused as Ryan.

  “It wouldn’t be what portals normally look like… but an infinite number of dimensions mean an infinite number of possibilities. Just because I haven’t seen a portal like that, doesn’t mean it can’t be one.” Jack made his way back to it with renewed interest.

  Geoff followed Jack back, and Ryan went to do so as well. He barely took a full step before hitting an invisible wall.

  “Guys…?” He asked as he looked down around his feet but saw no devil’s trap or similar. There were symbols, but none he recognised, and they didn’t appear to be arranged in a way as to trap him. He tried stepping back but hit another wall. He was stuck.

  Jack looked over and looked upwards, “That could be a problem.”

  Ryan followed his gaze and saw that the ceiling about thirty feet above them was covered in just as many symbols as the floor. Directly above Ryan happened to be a devil’s trap and it was pinning him down.

  Jack tapped Geoff on the shoulder, “Could you dispel that trap?”

  Geoff turned and saw the situation, “Oh.” He waved a hand and the paint making up the trap crumbled away.

  “Thanks!” Ryan smiled and made his way back to them, this time keeping an eye on the ceiling as well as the floor. When he approached he asked, “Not to derail our investigation here but if we confirmed that Demon isn’t actually a demon, why do those work on me?”

  “It’s old magic.” Jack began, “Was originally a ‘trap-all’ solution and has its origins in summoning. Modified over the centuries it became more specialised for demon detainment, but never fully lost its other functions. It’s also why it’s called a _devil_ trap and not demon trap.” Jack debated whether he should tell Ryan that he and Demon could potentially break the trap themselves. Geoff had told him everything he had learned from Burnie, and a devil trap would be no match for magic negation, but having Ryan discover that power would only be trouble. So Jack decided not to mention it. Being able to negate magic meant Ryan could theoretically break every rule the supernatural world ran on.

  “That’s pretty neat. Annoying, but neat.” Ryan said.

  “Hey Jack,” Geoff had wandered closer to the goo in order to inspect it, “If we start tossing something like different types of food in there, would that be a way to test if this thing is alive, or a portal?”

  “What about a camera?” Ryan suggested, but then gave it further thought, “Although if everything gets coated in slime, we won’t see much.”

  “I don’t like the idea of literally tossing things at it in order to see what sticks.” Jack told them, “Geoff, how does it react to magic?”

  Geoff shrugged, “Pretty normally. I can push it around a bit around its edges but then it’s almost as if it’s glued down. Like I said earlier, I’d like to see how it reacts to fire.”

  “Have you tried water?” Ryan asked, “We don’t think of water as special, but if this is a thing from another dimension… water is highly polar; but our world and all life in it is just built with this in mind.”

  “Polar?” Geoff looked at Ryan questioningly.

  “Yeah you know, the whole reason water and oil don’t mix?” Ryan saw that Geoff didn’t know, “High school chemistry?” he attempted to jog his memory.

  “I never paid attention.” Geoff excused himself, and then remembered how Ryan had been institutionalised, “They teach you chemistry in the loony bin?”

  Ryan frowned in offense at the term but still replied, “I was a minor; education was mandatory. And then I just continued it as long as I could.”

  “Wow, you’re a nerd.” Geoff said with feigned awe.

  “It was better than doing nothing.” Ryan never thought he’d have to defend himself about having finished his education.

  Geoff shrugged, “Doesn’t make you less of a nerd.” He turned to Jack, “Do we have a bucket somewhere here? Or a cup?”

  Jack shrugged, “Probably. I’ll look by the sink; you check out our supplies.”

  Geoff nodded and moved over to some shelving far to the left, while Jack went to the wall on the right. The right wall had a small laundry sink and Jack found a red plastic cleaning bucket underneath. He pulled out the sponge stored inside and tossed it into the sink. After filling the bucket halfway with water, he returned to Ryan who was still staring at the goo.

  “Geoff, there was a bucket, we’re good!” Jack loudly told Geoff who was still somewhere among the shelving.

  Geoff’s head popped out into the aisle and he held out a copper bowl, “Awesome, because all I found is this thing, and I think it turns water into blood.”

  Jack squinted at the bowl, “No, that’s the one that won’t hold any liquid but honey.”

  “Oh.” Geoff pulled back among the shelves to return the bowl.

  “I have so many questions for whoever makes these things…” Ryan muttered. He was having extreme difficulty rationalising why anyone would need something like that.

  “You and me both.” Jack chuckled as he overheard, “My personal favorite – which I actually decided to take home since I think it’s hilarious – is this small complicated weather dial that tells you the weather at that exact moment… four years ago.”

  Ryan laughed, “I can imagine the process that went into figuring that out.”

  “Yeah, took a while. Thought it was broken at first, but it was always changing in a pretty realistic way. Took a while to realise it was telling the past and not predicting the future.” Jack stated, “It’s so complex and detailed too, with temperature and humidity, even barometric pressure. Little painted icons spin into place to show if it’s raining, sunny, cloudy, or if it happens to be windy or foggy, and what the moon phase is. But the whole thing is useless.” He shook his head.

  “Is that how you get most of those weird knick-knacks in your living room?” Ryan remembered waking up to all those little colourful pieces.

  Jack smiled, and Geoff approached them, “No, most of those are interdimensional gifts from the creatures I summon. I wasn’t lying when I said they’re my friends.”

  Both of Ryan’s eyebrows rose, “Really?!”

  Jack laughed at his surprise.

  “The secret of summoning is friendship.” Geoff interrupted.

  “People assume summoning is bringing over powerful beings and binding them to your will. Which IS possible, but often will get you eaten – or worse – if you mess up even slightly. If you instead build a relationship with the being, then you can just ask them for help when you need it. It takes more work than the other method, but I like to think it’s better.” Jack explained.

  “So you can’t guarantee that they’ll help you…” Ryan realised.

  “No, but that’s where trust comes in. And I’d like to believe that if I help them, they’ll help me in return, assuming I don’t ask too much too often.” Jack readied his bucket and took a step towards the goo.

  “How do you befriend something like Terry in the first place?” Ryan was absolutely fascinated.

  Jack chuckled, “Very Carefully.” He tipped some water out of the bucket onto a lump of goo on the floor. He stepped back to observe if anything would happen.

  The cyan colour of the goo where the water had touched it bleached into sickly grey, and emitted a sour smell.

  “Well it does som–” Geoff abruptly cut himself off in order to throw his arms up defensively.

  The water touched goo ignited aggressively, much like someone sparking gasoline. Fire flared upwards and sent them all sprinting back.

  “Shit damn!” Geoff cursed.

  The fire sprinklers picked up the flash of heat as it reached the ceiling. Suddenly water poured down on top of the group and everything in the warehouse.

  The entirety of the goo’s surface began to turn grey, and the three Gents shouted at each other to run away.

  With a loud and sudden “ _FWOOSH!_ ” the goo burst into flame.

  They were almost at the door and turned around to see the mess. The raining water kept anything else from igniting, but only fueled the goo flame.

  “Thanks, Einstein!” Geoff bellowed at Ryan.

  “How was I supposed to know?!” Ryan screeched in response.

  They were all drenched and soaking through. Their hair was pressed flat against their faces as the cold water continued to beat down on them.

  “Geoff, can you put out the fire?” Jack yelled, “We need to stop the sprinklers before we flood!” He couldn’t risk shutting off the building’s water while a fire still burned.

  Geoff was forever thankful that he had had the foresight to disconnect their fire alarm. No one was going to show up and discover their supply of cursed items, “Hold on a sec!” he stepped forward toward the flames and held out his hands.

  The fire began to shrink in size and then almost disappeared entirely, before igniting again. Clearly the water really was a fuel source. So Geoff tried to create a vacuum around the goo. This time the flames snuffed out instantly, but he knew he had to keep the spell going otherwise it would just ignite again.

  Geoff noticed that the fire had also been burning away the goo, there was maybe a whole quarter less of it than before, “Jack, I think we need to let it burn!” he yelled over his shoulder.

  “What?!” Jack yelled back.

  “Fire removes the slime!” Geoff tried to be brief, the effort of holding a vacuum was making his arm and leg muscles begin to twitch.

  “Fire removes most things!” Ryan told them loudly, “Doesn’t mean we let it!”

  Jack thought it over, “If we let it burn, can you control the water? Or stop the fire from spreading?” Jack was concerned about the well-being of everything else in the warehouse. Just because they weren’t items that could be sold, didn’t mean that they should be damaged.

  “It’s all shit in here anyway!” Geoff replied, “But I can stop the fire from spreading if you turn off the damn water already!” he released the vacuum spell and air rushed into the area, bringing the fire back with it. Geoff took a deep breath and shook out his limbs. He changed his stance and closed his eyes.

  A soft red light began to glow just above each of his palms and he started a quiet incantation. His incantations were always unique, and often frowned upon by other warlocks, but since most spells were intent based, they we just as effective.

  “...Fucking bullshit fiery nonsense, burn shit and die, motherfucker…” Geoff spoke just under his breath, “Touch my shit and I’ll fucking tear your dick off…”

  A glowing red dot appeared on the floor by the burning goo and after a moment of hesitation it drew a circle around the whole mess. The completed circle shot red light upwards, creating a protective barrier.

  Geoff dropped his hands and huffed as he opened his eyes. That should be good enough to do the trick, now if Jack would only get his ass out to the water valve for the sprinkler system, “JACK!”

  “On it!” Jack sprinted out through the front door.

  Ryan and Geoff exchanged an awkward silence for a few moments, before the downpour turned into a trickle and then slowly petered out.

  The sprinklers were still dropping the occasional drip when Jack jogged back inside, panting.

  Ryan found himself feeling chilled, and seeing Jack’s purple lips, realised he wasn’t the only one. They both approached Geoff in front of the fire only to find that none of the fire’s heat was coming through Geoff’s barrier.

  “Do you have a drying spell?” Ryan asked Geoff.

  Geoff looked at him and groaned, “Yeah, but I don’t want to cast it three fucking times.”

  Jack had his arms tightly wrapped around himself, “Don’t be an ass.” He scolded.

  Geoff rolled his head and stretched out his fingers, “Alright, but you guys get the shitty spell because it’s easier.”

  Jack put his arms out to his sides and nodded.

  Ryan watched. It appeared as if the gravity acting on Jack’s hair and clothes doubled for a couple of seconds and a splash of water hit the floor below him. His clothes bounced back up as if suddenly being let go, and Jack was fully dry.

  “Your turn.” Geoff turned to Ryan.

  Ryan felt weight press on him and pull his clothes down towards the ground. All the water that had been on his body and clothes dropped to the floor. The weight let up after a couple seconds and Ryan was happily dry.

  “Thanks,” Ryan smiled at Geoff who was still wet.

  “You’re welcome.” Geoff sounded irritated, and closed his eyes. A golden light surrounded Geoff’s body. It faded away as quickly as it came, and left Geoff nicely dry and warm. His shoulders were hanging a bit lower, but he said nothing as he turned back to the contained fire.

  The goo was about two thirds gone, leaving behind a thin layer of blackened residue. It wasn’t going to be long until the flames devoured the rest.

  “We never actually figured out what it was.” Ryan thought out loud.

  Geoff pointed into the flames, part of a blackened object was becoming visible roughly where the origin of the goo had been, “No, but I think we might have the source.”

  Jack moved closer and adjusted his glasses, “Hard to tell what it is, but it would be nice to know what set it off like that, so we can avoid it in the future.”

  “I say we just dump it in a random storage unit and make it the storage place’s owner’s problem when we don’t pay the rent.” Geoff proposed, “I don’t want to deal with this shit again.”

  Jack sighed and shook his head, but didn’t argue.

 The fire was dying down, but it still wasn’t small enough for Geoff to remove the barrier.

  “Well this was an interesting night.” Ryan forced a small laugh.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be quite so eventful…” Jack said with a smile.

  Ryan looked at his phone, “It’s almost one AM, so if you don’t need me anymore, could I head home?”

  The last flame extinguished itself and Geoff dropped the barrier with a wave of his hand, “It really that late already?” he pulled out his own phone and woke the screen. His brows furrowed deeply and he began to pale as he read something. He began to swipe through his messages and only paled further. His expression became one of worry and fear.

  “Geoff, what’s going on?” Jack was immediately at his side and took the phone into his hand to look at what was bothering Geoff, “Oh no.”

  Ryan’s anxiety flared, “What’s going on?”

  “We were busy… I was missing his messages… I–” Geoff began.

  Jack cut him off, “Stay calm, it’s not your fault. Where do you want to start?”

  “Get Jeremy, and Gavin.” Geoff’s voice wavered but he worked to keep it stable.

  “Guys, _what is going on?!_ ” Ryan demanded.

  Jack was sending off messages on his phone, so it was Geoff who replied, “You haven’t met him yet, there’s a few employees I have that you haven’t met… You haven’t needed to, but um,” He shook his head and took a breath, “I think something’s happened to Trevor. He was messaging frantically about being followed and then it just cuts off.” Geoff swallowed, “He’s just a kid, like Jeremy. If he was targeted, it’s my fault.”

  Ryan wasn’t sure what to say, so he tried the reassuring route, “I’m sure he’s fine. You can’t know that something bad has happened.”

  “He isn’t replying.” Geoff had messaged him back, and now he tried dialing Trevor’s number and it went straight to voicemail, “Fuck.” Geoff’s expression became cautiously hopeful and he grabbed Ryan by the shoulders, “Demon, can you track people?”

  Ryan shook his head.

  _Maybe I could learn to, but we don’t have any supernatural sense to aid us…_ Demon thought about it.

  “Fuck.” Geoff swore again and released Ryan. He turned away, and then spun back towards him, “When did you last eat?”

  Ryan blinked in confusion at the change in topic, “Uh, like ten-thirty, eleven? Why does it matter?”

  Before Ryan could further inquire as to why that information was important, Jack spoke up, “Jeremy is going to meet us at your place, and Gavin is bringing Michael.” He seemed to hesitate on the next part, “But Gavin is taking a cab; apparently he and Michael were drinking together… I don’t know how much use they can be.”

  “I thought Michael doesn’t work for you?” Ryan asked. He knew about them drinking, he had after all been at the same get-together.

  “He doesn’t, but I guess Gavin is worried enough that Michael wants to help. Those two have been close for years.” Geoff explained, “And now that what I do for a living is out of the bag, I have no problem with bringing a were-bear along.”

  “Maybe he would have been the better hire?” Ryan suggested. He appreciated the money greatly, but still wasn’t sure of his fit with these men. That didn’t lessen the pang of offense he then felt as Geoff seemed to seriously think it over.

  “I would love to bring him on. Maybe. We’ll see if he’s interested.” Geoff replied, “But for now I’d like to ensure I don’t lose Trevor.”

  “We need to hurry to your place.” Jack was all business, “Meet everyone there and then decide what our strategy will be.”

  “You’re right.” Geoff nodded, “This mess we’ll have to worry about later.” He waved towards the wet and charred remains of the slime. He turned to Ryan, “You probably don’t remember where my house is, so just follow us.”

  Ryan nodded, “I will.”

  Geoff and Jack nodded back and hurried out the door with Ryan right on their heels.

  This really was turning out to be an eventful night.

 

~*~

 

  Geoff’s living room was just as Ryan remembered it, minus the devil’s trap. Cluttered but not messy, the room was furnished with several bookcases, a large TV, plain coffee table, and a long plush couch.

  On the couch sat Michael and Gavin, each of them forcing themselves to finish off a bottle of water. Jeremy was also on the couch, giving the two a sympathetic look as they tried to sober up.

  Jack and Ryan were standing, and Ryan had leaned himself up against a bookcase, while Jack paced around trying to brainstorm different methods of tracking Trevor down.

  Geoff had left the room, and when he returned he held two necklaces by their chain.

  “Hey piss babies,” Geoff brandished the necklaces towards Michael and Gavin. On each long chain was a charm made of a light blue gemstone carved with intricate symbols, “This won’t stop you from getting a hangover but it will keep you thinking sober. Won’t do shit about your balance or reaction time, but it’s the best I’ve got right now.” He tossed them to into Gavin’s lap.

  Both boys put on the necklaces and slipped them beneath their shirts.

  “Huh,” Michael blinked a few times. It felt like a mental fog was being swept away, “Wow.”

  Gavin was equally impressed, “Why haven’t you given this to me before?!” he asked, “We’ve made right fools of ourselves so many times!”

  “Being drunk isn’t fun when it only makes you sick and dizzy.” Geoff responded, “The whole point is to get intoxicated.” He switched back on topic, “Ok, Jeremy, any ideas of what kind of spell we could use here?” he looked at the others, “Also if any of you know of anything, speak up.”

  “Trevor’s a skinwalker, so we can start by trying to locate any of those. I assume they aren’t too common…” Jeremy suggested, “We can then try and see which are closest to wherever his last text came from. It will narrow down our search area, and then we can try finding him specifically.”

  Jack nodded, “He was in his car and pulled over to text us. He said he was by his place, but didn’t want to lead the stalkers to his home.”

  “What ingredients do you think we’ll need?” Jeremy looked at Geoff, “We should grab them and go find his car if we can.”

  “If his car’s still there.” Ryan added, “They could have taken it as well.”

  “If we’re going to be by his house anyway, I can get us inside.” Gavin spoke up, “Could get somethin’ of his to use in a locating spell.”

  Geoff nodded, “That will make finding him far easier. Jeremy, come with me and help me grab shit we might need.” he motioned for Jeremy to follow him, and the two of them disappeared deeper into the house to raid whatever stash of magical ingredients Geoff had.

  “A skinwalker, huh?” Michael looked to Gavin, “What animal?”

  “Some type of fox.” Gavin answered.

  “Kit fox.” Jack corrected.

  Ryan stopped leaning on the bookshelf and stretched his back, “I know skinwalkers and ‘weres’ are different, but is it just on a technicality, or something more?”

  Michael shrugged.

  Jack saw the shrug so he answered, “Were-animals are disease based. They are contagious and their transformations can be feral – especially at first. Skinwalkers are never feral, and aren’t contagious. The only way to be a skinwalker is to be born as one. It runs in families.

  I’ve also heard that the transformations are less traumatic, but that could be just due to being born with it and not getting it later in life, because were-animals that are born as ‘weres’ seem to have less trouble in transforming too.” The man was an encyclopedia.

  “So if Michael were to have kids, they’d turn into bears pretty easy, huh?” Gavin turned to Michael.

  Ryan smiled, “That would be a mess to raise.”

  Michael leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling, “Yeah, it’s something Lindsay and I talk about sometimes. Maybe eventually, but right now we wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

  “Kid and dangerous pet in one.” Ryan chuckled.

  Michael laughed.

  Geoff and Jeremy returned and stood in the entry to the living room. Jeremy wore a large messenger bag that appeared fairly heavy.

  “Ok let’s go. I’m going to take Jeremy and Gavin with me. We’re going straight to Trevor’s apartment to start a locating spell. The rest of you I want going with Jack and searching around the area for his car, or anything else.” Geoff instructed, and after a pause to ensure everyone understood, he nodded and made his way outside to his truck.

  Jeremy and Gavin hurried to follow him.

  Jack looked at Ryan and Michael, “My truck is the black SUV. Come on.”

 

  Michael gave Ryan shotgun, and got into the seat behind Jack. Jack started the engine and left towards Trevor’s. Geoff had already disappeared, clearly not wanting to waste any more time, and Jack knew that if anything happened to Trevor, Geoff would only blame himself.

  They drove in tense silence until Jack pulled off the main road onto more winding residential streets. He slowed and began to peer intently out of the windshield and windows. 

  When Jack finally spoke, it was gentle, but with an underlying determination, “This is his neighbourhood. His car is a red sedan. Toyota. If you see anything out of place, let me know. I’m going to circle around and try to loosen the loop each time.”

  Ryan and Michael pressed themselves to the windows and the search began.

 

~*~

 

  Just after three AM, Geoff finally called them with the results of their locating spell.

  His voice came over through the speakers of Jack’s truck, “We’ve got an area for his whereabouts. No exact address, but it’s not too far away. Streetview has it looking like an abandoned crack house. Where are you guys at?”

  “We’re not too far out. Our own search found nothing, so I’m glad that you guys at least got something.” Jack told him.

  “Alright, meet up with us in the 7-eleven parking lot and I’ll lead us out.” Geoff said before hanging up.

  Startling Ryan and Michael, Jack gunned the engine and made a sharp U-turn before speeding off towards where he knew the store was.

  “Jesus, Jack!” Michael exclaimed.

  Jack didn’t bother answer as the green light of the 7-eleven emblem appeared in front of them from around a bend.

  Geoff was already in the parking lot and was leaning against his grey pickup. He held a shopping bag from the 7-eleven and perked up when he noticed them pull in.

  Jack parked next to him and rolled down his window, “What’s in the bag?” he asked as Geoff approached.

  Geoff pulled out a Gatorade and held it out, “For Michael. The charm won’t help at all with any hangover he gets.”

  Jack took the sports drink and passed it through to Michael who breathed out a long “Thank you!”

  Geoff went back into the bag and removed two protein bars, “These are for Ryan.” He handed them to Jack.

  Jack knew Geoff’s theory about Demon being more likely to emerge when Ryan was hungry. It made too much sense to argue. He nodded at Geoff and handed the bars off to Ryan who thanked him, but appeared somewhat confused.

  “We’re going to be heading south, just on the outskirts of the city. Follow me and I’ll get us there.” Geoff told Jack.

  “And then what are we going to do?” Jack asked.

  “We’ll figure it out once we know the situation.” Geoff replied and pat Jack’s truck before returning to his own.

 

  Geoff hadn’t lied in saying that the place wasn’t too far away. It only took them fifteen minutes to reach the neighbourhood and another five to find the exact place. They parked one behind the other on the side of the road not quite a full block away.

  Regrouping on the sidewalk with the trucks blocking them from view of the old decrepit house, they began to work on a plan.

  “You were right about it looking like a crack house.” Michael muttered as he looked at the place.

  The building was a small square bungalow with boards over the windows, and a yard so overgrown it could have been declared a state park. The asphalt shingles on the roof were warped and shredded, and the driveway had more grass than the lawn.

  “First of all, I think we should know what Trevor does for you. Figure out why someone would go after him – if this is even linked to you.” Ryan tried to approach the situation strategically.

  Geoff swallowed, “He’s our money guy. That’s all the reason anyone would need.”

  “Manages the finances and payout for our dealings.” Jack elaborated, “But no one should have any way of knowing that.”

  _So he’s the guy who ends up paying our salary. That is definitely worth worrying about._ Demon was finally concerned.

  Ryan snorted, and explained when everyone looked at him, “Demon’s on board now that we know it’s our paycheck at stake.” He shook his head, “Anyway of knowing how many people are in there?”

  “I’d rather not have this turn into a bloody mess.” Geoff admitted, “Demon, I appreciate the offer, but let’s avoid murder if we can.”

  “He still has a point about knowing how many people we’re going to be dealing with.” Michael pointed out, “They could be armed, and unless it’s silver, I’m the only one here that can brush off a bullet.”

  “As long as it’s not too vital a shot, I’ll be fine as well. Demon will keep me alive.” Ryan informed Michael.

  “Ok, but that’s still only two of the six – or I guess – seven of us.” Michael stated.

  “That makes you two our heavy hitters.” Geoff began to form a plan, “Gavin if you can get them through the side door, and then come back to us. Take Jeremy and move further around back, staying hidden, and watch for anyone who might decide to come out. Jack and I can try and locate a window closest to where Trevor is.”

  “The windows are boarded.” Ryan told him.

  “I know, idiot!” Geoff hissed, “It’s called magic, I’ll figure something out.”

  Ryan put his hands up apologetically.

  Geoff continued, “Once we have the window, we can bust it open as a distraction. That should let Ryan and Michael grab Trevor, while I fire off a few spells to keep everyone busy.” Geoff looked at them all to gauge their reactions and see if they had any additions.

  “You’re putting a lot of confidence in our ability to move stealthily.” Michael gestured to himself and Ryan.

  “I’m not too bad actually.” Ryan shrugged.

  “Ok, fine. _My_ ability then!” Michael corrected his statement.

  “Just follow Ryan’s lead. We don’t have the time to do this properly.” Geoff replied.

  Ryan took a breath, “I can go alone. Michael can add to your distraction.” Ryan turned to Michael, “If you don’t mind transforming, then it will be an even bigger deal. If all I need to do is grab Trevor, then I can do that. I assume it will be easy enough to identify who he is, and if I can’t move him, all of you will already be there.”

  Geoff nodded, “Ok. Everyone good with that?”

  There were nods all around.

  “Let’s move.” Geoff ordered.

 

  The group attempted to appear inconspicuous as they made their way over towards the house. Luckily for them, there weren’t many open eyes at almost four AM, and with the target house’s windows boarded up, no one spotted them.

  Geoff took a strange pouch out of Jeremy’s messenger bag and then split from the group with Jack and Michael in tow. Ryan rounded around to the side door with Gavin, while Jeremy continued all the way into the backyard to find a good vantage point.

  The side door was actually two doors. The first was a squeaky screen door with the screen slashed, and it didn’t even close properly. It was no obstacle, and Ryan held it open while Gavin bent over to work on the lock of the second door.

  Gavin pulled out a small pouch filled with long metal implements all slightly bent in different ways. He chose three and put the rest away.

  Ryan watched with interest as Gavin began to work on the lock. It only took him a few seconds.

  Gavin turned to Ryan with a smile and grabbed the knob. He twisted it, and his smile dropped from his face as the knob stuck.

  “Buggering heck!” He wiggled the knob. The door was locked.

   It had been unlocked and he had locked it.

  “Did you just lock the door? Did you not check it before you started picking it?!” Ryan whispered in astonishment at the oversight.

  Gavin made a muted squawk and immediately started fiddling with the lock again.

  Ryan nervously looked out to the street to see if someone had taken notice of them. He couldn’t see anyone.

  Gavin tried the knob again. This time the door opened, “You’re good.” He told Ryan and pat him on the arm before hurrying away in the direction of Jeremy.

  Ryan slowly pushed the door open, keeping an eye open for any sign of movement. Ensuring that the screen door closed as gently as possible behind him, he crept inside.

  It was a strange sensation to stalk prey without Demon in charge. He knew all the motions – it felt second nature to carefully place each step, and be on full alert for the faintest sound, whether it be a breath or scuff.

  _Look at you, Rye. You_ have _been paying attention!_ Demon was vicariously living through the motions, _Now if only you’d admit to enjoying it._

  The side door had led into the kitchen. Ryan crouched low and stayed close to the wall. Dim light came from down the hall towards the back of the house. He neared the hallway when he heard conversational voices start up.

  “Where did you leave the knife?” One voice, male, asked.

  “You said it had to stay cold. I put it in the sink with some water.” A second voice, also male, answered.

  “Go get it, Jim is done with the candles.” The first voice ordered.

  “On it!” The second voice replied, and Ryan heard heavy footfalls make their way down the hall towards him.

  Ryan pushed himself up against the wall facing away from the hall entry and remained low. Hopefully the man wouldn’t immediately turn back once he walked into the kitchen.

  The dim lighting brightened slightly and a man wearing a long hooded robe entered the kitchen holding a fat candle. He held the candle before him and crossed in front of Ryan to get to the opposite wall where the sink was.

  Ryan watched the man’s back as he set the candle down on the counter. This was a cult thing wasn’t it? Why else would there be candles and robes?

  _Focus!_  Demon scolded him.

  Ryan snapped back to attention.

  _Ensure he can’t use the hot wax against you._ Demon advised.

  Ryan straightened. Keeping his breathing slow and deep, he silently made his way forward.

  The man was rolling up one of the long sleeves of his robe so it wouldn’t get wet when he reached into the sink.

  In one swift, lightening quick motion, Ryan knocked the candle off the counter, wrapped an arm around the man’s neck and covered his mouth with his other hand.

  The candle had extinguished when it hit the floor, and left the two of them in a darkness where only Ryan could see.

  Ryan tightened his arm around the man’s neck and waited until his struggling weakened. It took a few moments, but the man fell limp, passing out.

  Ryan held on a little bit longer, just in case the man was faking it, and then lowered him down to the floor without making a sound.

  _The knife…_ Demon reminded Ryan with a satisfied purr.

  _I’m not killing anyone._ Ryan was adamant, but stuck his hand into the sink to grab the weapon anyway.

  Ryan pulled the knife from the sink and upon seeing it he had to pause to better look at it. The blade was leaf shaped and the tip had three prongs. The handle curved all the way around to simultaneously be a hilt. Not only was it impractical and unwieldly, it felt like ice in his hand. He couldn’t hold on to it for too long without being forced to switch which hand it was in.

  Thinking quickly, he used the knife to cut a strip off of the downed man’s robes and then wrapped the cloth around the handle. Pleased at his handiwork, Ryan returned to the hallway entry from the kitchen.

  He listened first for any footsteps or further voices, before peeking around the corner. It was clear.

  Knife in his right hand, he silently made his way forward. The hall terminated in a window that must have faced the backyard. The rest of the rooms in the bungalow branched off of this hall, and Ryan could see an open door with candlelight flickering inside. All the other rooms appeared dark.

  This central hallway layout meant that there was only one entrance to any room, and if anyone were to step into the hall, Ryan would be immediately spotted. It was a bad position to be in, and Ryan hoped that Geoff would come through with his promise of a distraction sometime soon.

  He snuck into the open doorway of the room nearest to the one with the candlelight, and waited. He wouldn’t be quite as visible now.

  “Fuck, man. He lose his way?” A female voice joked.

  Ryan tightened his grip on the knife; there was at least four people. One of which would be waking up soon, and if Geoff didn’t–

  The sound of splintering and cracking wood came from the direction of the room, and Ryan didn’t have the luxury of second-guessing whether this was his cue. He swung himself around the corner into the hall and hurried towards the illuminated room.

  Shouts sounded in surprise as a series of bright lights flashed within. Ryan rushed into the room, which must have been a master bedroom at some point, and saw five robed figures being blinded by bright orbs of pure light. There was an orb for each person, and each was about the size of a beach ball. They flew into their faces and refused to leave.

  Feeling partially blinded himself, Ryan managed to spot a scrawny black haired man seated on the floor. His hands and ankles were bound with duct tape, and he was gagged in a similar fashion. Candles in jars were arranged in a circle around him, and a large necklace made from animal bones, teeth, and claws was around his neck. That had to be Trevor.

  Trevor didn’t recognise Ryan but let him cut the tape off. Hands free he tore the tape from his mouth and shouted at Ryan over the noise of the others, “Get this necklace off of me!”

  Ryan finished freeing Trevor’s legs and looked up at him.

  “Take it off!” Trevor demanded, “I can’t!”

  The cultists noticed Ryan and with angry screams they attempted to blindly charge him.

  Ryan grabbed Trevor by the arm, bringing him to his feet, and pulled him aside. He pushed Trevor up against the wall with his back to keep them both out of the reach of the blindly clawing cultists. He looked over his shoulder to the necklace that Trevor was demanding be removed. It would probably be a bad idea to keep it on him.

  It looked like the necklace was secured with a knot, so Ryan decided to just pull it over Trevor’s head. He curled his fingers around the strung bones and teeth.

  At the contact, a strange force pushed its way into his body. It travelled up his arm and into his core, where it then hit some sort of resistance. Ryan wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but next thing he knew, he was shoving the force out of his body back into the necklace. “Shoving” was the wrong word; it didn’t quite convey the massive damage he could feel himself dealing. He was crushing it, fracturing it, and then pushing the shattered remains of the force toward their source.

  Even the broken remains began to wither and disappear, and Ryan could feel his strength going with them. He was feeling faint, and his vision began to tunnel.

  The last thing he could remember was a loud inorganic screech like twisting metal, a burning green blast, and the sensation of the necklace crumbling to dust within his hand.

 

~*~

 

  Sunlight drifted down, warming the ground with gentle green hues filtered through the thick leafy canopy above them. They were deep in a temperate forest.

  “What the fuck?!” Geoff spun around trying to take in the very sudden change in scenery, “WHAT THE FUCK?!”

  Jack and Michael were just as confused, and Michael was mirroring Geoff’s sentiments exactly.

  “The fuck just happened?!” Michael was absolutely dumbstruck, “There was a horrible noise, and green light, and now it’s day?! And we’re in the woods?!”

  “I saw the light and heard the screech as well. It’s definitely magic.” Jack adjusted his glasses before crouching down to examine some undergrowth, “This could be bad.” He looked at his phone. No signal. Of course.

  Michael cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered, “GAVIN!” no answer, “HELLO?!”

  Geoff joined in, “JEREMY! TREVOR! RYAN! ANYONE THERE?!”

  Jack straightened and added his voice, “CAN ANYONE HEAR US?!”

  They waited in silence trying to make out any possible response. All they received was the sound of wind and fluttering leaves. Some birds chirped in the distance.

  “This is bad.” Jack revised his previous statement.

  “Where the fuck are we?” Michael asked no one in particular.

  “In a forest.” Geoff answered him.

  “No shit.” Michael spat, “You know what I was asking.”

  “Well if I fucking knew, I’d tell you!” Geoff’s voice rose.

  Michael crossed his arms, “Got any magic to fix this?”

  Jack looked to Geoff expectantly.

  Geoff sighed and shook his head, “Two problems: one, I need to know roughly where we are before I can warp us elsewhere. Two, if everyone else is out here as well… well we need to find them before we warp away, or we’re leaving them high and dry.”

  “If there’s any good news in this, it’s that I’m not picking up anything particularly magical or malicious about this place. It’s just some forest.” Jack told them, “But depending on where we are, the locals might be a problem if we hang around too long.”

  Geoff gestured to Michael, “We’ve got a bear, we’ll be fine.”

  “I wasn’t really worried about us.” Jack admitted.

  “Can you summon something to find them? Or to let us know where we are?” Michael wanted to at least ask if it was possible.

  Jack put his hands on his hips and looked around, “I’d need to be able to draw a circle. A big one.” He exhaled loudly, “But unless we find a big flat rock or a patch of unbroken soil… I can’t do it.”

  “Lindsay said you summoned the last thing from your blood.” Michael remembered.

  “Yeah, but that’s Terry. He can’t help us here – not now at least.” Jack partially explained, “Ideally I could move us into a pocket dimension and then just pop us back at my place. Unlike warping, I don’t have to actually know where we are; I’ll always be able to find my house. But it also requires a circle too complex for dirt.”

  “Too detailed for dirt doodlin’.” Geoff said to Michael.

  “So then what do we _do_?” Michael stressed the word, “We can’t just camp out; we’ll need food, water, fire… And we can’t just pick a direction and walk – we could end up going the complete wrong way!”

  “We need to assume that the rest of the guys are here somewhere too.” Geoff answered.

  Jack shook his head, “I get why you think that, but we can’t know that. It’s safer to assume we’re alone and just try to work on figuring out where we are. If we start splitting up and searching, we’re only going to end up worse.”

  “I never said to split up. We stick together and make as much noise as possible.” Geoff told him.

  “Or we stay quiet and try to see if we can hear anyone else.” Jack argued.

  “Or,” Michael stepped out of his shoes and began pulling his socks off, “I can try and smell ‘em out.” He pulled his shirt up over his head, and then paused to see if Jack and Geoff had any protests.

   Jack looked at Geoff with a shrug, then back to Michael, “If you don’t mind trying?”

  “Can you honestly track them down like that?” Geoff raised his eyebrows.

  “I might not be able to tell who is who, but I can definitely tell if a scent is human or not.” Michael informed them. He bent over to stuff his socks into his shoes, and then tied the ends of the arms of his t-shirt shut. He flipped the shirt around and tied another knot with the loose end, leaving only the neck hole. He undid his belt and jeans, easily slipping them off.

  “Uh, do you want some privacy, or…?” Jack asked.

  Geoff turned away, “I don’t care to know what your dick looks like.”

  “Calm down. I’ll go behind a tree or something when I take my boxers off. I just need to do this while I still have thumbs.” Michael replied with an air of amusement. He shoved his jeans through the neck hole of his shirt, storing them inside. He did the same for his glasses. He strung his shoes on the belt by their laces, and then tied the belt around his shirt nice and tight.

  Michael distanced himself from them and went behind a couple of trees that were side by side.

  Jack and Geoff heard Michael utter out in pain, clearly trying to quiet himself as the transformation twisted his body.

 

  Leaves from a small bush tickled Michael’s nose as he pushed himself up onto all fours. Blues and greens were always far more vibrant when he was a bear, and the sheer amount of sound and smell never ceased to amaze.

  He lifted his head to the wind and took several good sniffs. Geoff and Jack’s scents were immediately apparent, but they weren’t the ones he was going to be searching for. He was also picking up the smell of moving water not too far off, and what must be a fair sized herd of deer a few miles away.

 

  Geoff and Jack couldn’t help but tense up as the massive land predator ambled towards them carrying his human underwear in his mouth.

  Seeing their tension, Michael sat himself down and huffed.

  “We’re allowed to be nervous, ok.” Geoff told him.

  Michael gave a deep annoyed groan, and stood up. He moved over to his clothing bundle and shoved his underwear inside. Satisfied it wasn’t going to fall out he picked up the bundle by the belt.

  “Picking up any human stink?” Geoff asked Michael as he returned to them with his clothes.

  Michael nodded and used a paw to point to Geoff and then Jack.

  “Other than us, jackass.” Geoff scowled.

  Michael pushed himself up onto his hind legs and stretched his back.

  Both men stepped back respectfully.

  Michael stuck his nose up high and began to take in as much of his surroundings as he could. There were definitely other humans around, but they were in every direction at varying distances. He took a moment to locate the scent that felt the closest. Pinning it down, he looked back at Geoff with a grunt, and pointed in the correct direction.

  “Lead the way.” Geoff gestured for Michael to go ahead.

  With a dull thump, Michael dropped his front paws back to the ground and began to push his way through the undergrowth.

  “Thank you, Michael.” Jack moved in behind him to follow in his path.

  Michael didn’t fully turn his head, but gave a grunt in acknowledgement.

 

~*~

 

  “ _Jeremyyyyyyyyy.”_ Gavin whined as he followed him between trees and around thorn covered bushes.

  “What?!” Jeremy was starting to get irritated. He had already clearly explained to Gavin that he didn’t have any spell or magic to help them out of this mess.

  “Are you sure that you don’t even have some way to message Geoff, or–” Gavin faded off.

  Jeremy stopped walking and feigned an over exaggerated look of epiphany, “Yes! I have this small tablet made of metal and glass,” He put his and into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “But it appears the magic of this area preventing it from reaching him!”

  Gavin wore an angry frown, “Jeremy.”

  “No, Gavin. I don’t fucking have anything. They might not even be here, and if they are, all we can do is keep moving and hope we come across each other.” Jeremy told him.

  “We don’t even know if we’re going in the right direction.” Gavin protested, “Maybe we should stay still and try to make a fire or something.”

  “It we want to do that then we need to make sure we set up by a source of water. I can’t make water appear, but I can purify anything we find. If we just sit around a fire for hours, we’ll only dry up and die.” Jeremy told him.

  “It might not take hours.” Gavin was optimistic, “They could see the smoke and come right away.”

  “I don’t want to risk it. We should prepare for the worst, and that means finding water is our priority.” Jeremy lay it straight.

  Gavin nodded, “Alright, if you think so.” He paused, “What about food?”

  “Unless you know how to hunt, we’re fucked.” Jeremy responded.

  “That’s right wank; I can’t kill anythin’.” Gavin confessed.

  “Then hopefully we get out of here soon.” Jeremy turned away from him and resumed walking.

 

~*~

 

  Ryan woke up on his back, lying on uncomfortably uneven ground. He had a pounding headache and was thankful he was in the shade of a tree.

  Wait.

  A tree?

  He remembered the blinding flash of green, and sat up. Clothes that weren’t his tumbled from his chest to his lap. Looking around he realised he was deep in the woods and the sun was well up. How long had he been out? What had happened?

  “Oh hey, you’re awake!” A friendly sounding male voice said from behind Ryan.

  Ryan turned only to see a brown fox seated on the ground. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

  “I didn’t know if you were in shock or something, and the closest thing to a blanket I had was my clothes… So I did my best. Glad to see you’re ok, though.” The fox _smiled._

  Ryan closed his eyes and gave his head a shake, was this the headache or– wait. A fox. Didn’t Jack say something about– 

  “Trevor?” Ryan asked the fox.

  “Oh cool, you do know me.” Trevor’s tail gave a wag, “So you work for Geoff, and since I haven’t met you before I assume you’re that new guy, right?”

  Ryan nodded.

  “Uhhh, Jim- James, right?” Trevor tried to remember the name on the paperwork.

  “Ryan.” Ryan corrected him.

  A look of confusion crossed the fox’s face and Ryan couldn’t help but laugh, “It’s my middle name. James is my first name. I’ve just always gone by Ryan.” He explained.

  “Oh. Ok. Hi Ryan.” Trevor greeted.

  A silence passed between them.

  “So, uh, why are we in the woods?” Trevor asked Ryan.

  Ryan raised an eyebrow, “I was kinda hoping you could tell me.” He gave an embarrassed laugh.

  Trevor stood and walked over to sit in front of Ryan, “Wait, you didn’t send us here on purpose?” he tilted his head in confusion.

  “No…? I don’t know any magic.” Ryan told him.

  “But you destroyed that necklace… Wasn’t this supposed to be our getaway?” Trevor was trying to piece together what had happened.

  “No. I was just supposed to grab you and leave while Geoff and the others provided a distraction and backup.” Ryan informed him, “A forest was not part of the plan.”

  Trevor didn’t know what to think, “You sure? I mean maybe Geoff was the one who warped us out?”

  Ryan shook his head, “He said nothing about it. And even then if he had, I don’t think he would have left us here for hours.”

  “Hours? Nah man, it’s been like twenty, thirty minutes tops.” Trevor shifted his paws.

  Ryan looked up to check the position of the sun, “You sure? The sun shouldn’t be out if it’s only been that long.”

  “I’m positive, man. We appeared in the woods and it was already bright.”

  Ryan put Trevor’s clothes aside and stood. He looked at the shadows on the ground, and upon finding one that wasn’t in motion, he marked the soil next to it with the toe of his shoe.

  “Can magic make us time travel? Or could we have been stuck somewhere for hours without noticing it?” Ryan was working on a theory.

  Trevor stood and inspected the mark Ryan had made with curiosity, “Uh, I don’t know about the first one, but the second thing is possible if some sort of memory altering or stasis spell was cast.”

  “But it’s safe to assume that the simplest explanation is teleportation or warping, right? The others would be complicated?” Ryan wanted a confirmation.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Trevor noticed how Ryan was in thought, “Why? What are you guessing happened?”

  “I think we’re very, _very_ , far from home.” Ryan looked back down at the fox, “What were those cultists trying to do with you?”

  “Trying to summon some old-world forest god – oh god, the necklace was some token – what if this that god’s forest?!” Trevor spun around as if worried something was about to leap from the bushes. His ears flattened and he backed up towards Ryan, “Who knows what might be out here?!” his tail brushed Ryan’s leg. He jumped and instantly all his fur stood on end. Noticing it was only Ryan, his fur flattened, but his eyes were still wide.

  Ryan squatted down next to Trevor, “Hey,”

  Trevor turned to look at Ryan, but his ears remained low.

  “We’ll be fine.” Ryan pointed to his mark in the soil, “The shadow got shorter, see? That means the sun is rising. We were teleported east, all the way across the Atlantic.” He straightened to stand up once more, “That also means we know which way is north, and since this is a nice leafy forest, with the odd pine and cedar, we can also have a rough estimate that we’re in Europe or western Russia.

  That might not help us much right now; but it’s a start, and it means civilization can’t be too ridiculously far away.” Actually it could. Especially if they were in Russia, but Ryan was attempting to be reassuring.

  _We’re fucked._ Demon simply stated his thoughts on the matter.

 

~*~

 

  Michael continued to lead them through the trees. Every so often he would stop and lift his nose to the air, before continuing on. Sometimes his clothing bundle would get caught on a branch or a bush and he’d have to tug it free.

  The third time his clothing got stuck, Jack approached him, “Hey, want me to carry those? It will be easier for me, and you can focus on finding people.”

  Michael nodded and let Jack take the bundle from him. He made a happy hum in thanks.

  “Can you tell how close the other people are?” Geoff walked up next to Jack, “It looks like it’s about noon now, and if we don’t stop before it gets dark, we’ll have a hard time making camp.”

  Michael answered with a series of throaty moans.

  Geoff realised that he should have phrased the question in a way Michael could answer with yes or no, “Are they close?” he tried again.

  Michael nodded.

  “Maybe we should be careful.” Jack looked to both of them, “We don’t know who these people are. They could be our friends, or hunters, and hunters will shoot if they see a bear.”

  “And it would suck if they happened to hit us.” Geoff nodded.

  Michael made a noise of protest.

  Geoff knew exactly what he was protesting, “Look, I know getting shot still hurts you, but it can _kill_ us.”

  Michael snorted, and shook out his head.

  “Let’s make noise.” Geoff looked at Jack for his opinion, “Make it obvious we’re human.”

  “Ok.” Jack nodded, “But only if you can guarantee you’ve got enough energy to defend us in case something else hears us and decides to say ‘hi’.”

  “Jack, I’m fine.” Geoff insisted, “Like yes, I’m a bit tired by this point, but I’m still good.”

  Jack examined Geoff’s face for any hint of a lie, “You sure?”

  “Yes!”

  Michael watched the exchange with curiosity. He’d heard that casting magic was quite the mental and sometimes physical exertion, but he himself had no experience with it.

  “We’ve been walking for an hour now, maybe we should just sit and rest for a bit.” Jack suggested and looked to Michael for support.

  Michael turned to face them both. They had been awake for quite some time, and hadn’t had any rest. He still wore Geoff’s charm, so his thoughts were clear, but he did feel a dull ache behind his eyes and growing at the base of his skull. If they stopped, his hangover would catch up with him. At the same time, Jack and Geoff were both visibly weary, with shoulders hanging low, and bags darkening beneath their eyes.

  He made his decision. With an exhale, Michael lowered himself to the ground and dropped his head onto his paws.

  Jack gave a tired smile, and turned to Geoff.

  Geoff appeared irritated, “We don’t have the time to waste sitting around!”

  “We’ve been awake for far too long, and while I agree that we can’t afford sleep, we can take the time to catch our breath.” Jack’s voice remained calm, yet was stern, and he seated himself next to Michael.

  “If I rest, I’m going to end up falling asleep.” Geoff argued. He knew that if he stopped moving, he would struggle in finding the motivation to continue. He pulled out his phone to check the time. It was almost 6AM his time, and even though the sun shone bright where they were, it wasn’t helping him fight the need for sleep.

  “We can wake you.” Jack offered, “Just give yourself fifteen minutes.”

  Geoff shook his head, “No Jack. Michael said they were close. Once we find them, then we can rest.” He forced himself to start moving again, and resumed walking in the direction they had been heading in before.

  With a load groan Jack pushed himself back up onto his feet, “Geoff, you can’t just keep going! You’ll get lost! You said yourself that we shouldn’t separate!”

  “Then fucking come with me!” Geoff yelled at him from over his shoulder.

  “Fuck!” Jack cursed under his breath, and started after him.

  Michael lifted his head to watch Jack go after Geoff, and gave a sound of protest.

  Jack turned back to him, “We’re not going to stop him, come on.”

  With a huff, Michael got back up on his feet and followed.

 

  They travelled without conversation. Michael returned to his position leading the group, and no longer bothered to step carefully. Branches snapped and cracked beneath his paws as they made their way forward.

  “HELLO!” Geoff hollered. He would wait for any response before trying again a few moments later, “HELLO?!”

  Jack could only think about how thirsty this travel was making him. Normally he would have helped in the shouting as well, but knew it would only dry his mouth out further. At this rate, one of them was going to end up making themselves ill.

  “HELLO?!” Geoff’s voice cracked in desperation.

  “Geoff, we need to find water.” Jack spoke up.

  Geoff turned to him and opened his mouth to respond, but stopped himself when they all heard a voice drift towards them from between the trees.

  “Hello?!” The voice sounded male but the distance made it difficult to recognise.

  Geoff and Jack both immediately turned towards it.

  “Hey!” Geoff shouted, “Where are you?! We’re lost!”

  “We’re lost too!” The voice replied.

  “Do you think you can head towards us?!” Jack asked them.

  “Yeah! Just keep talking! We’ll follow it!”

 

  It took a few more rounds of shouting back and forth before they spotted movement between the trees. Two men emerged. Neither man was known to them.

  One man was shorter with shoulder length black hair, sparse beard and deep brown eyes. The taller man had dark brown hair tied into a bun, and was hazel eyed. Both looked tired and scared.

  They noticed Michael as they neared and shouted, freezing in place.

  Geoff was about to explain to them that Michael was no threat when he noticed the long dark green robes they were carrying draped over their arms, “You motherfuckers.”

  “Geoff what–” Jack didn’t finish his question before Geoff answered.

  “Those robes! They’re the cultist fucks who took Trevor!” Geoff charged the closest one and grabbed him by the collar. He pinned the bunned man against the trunk of the nearest tree.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” The man protested, “It was nothing personal!”

  The man with the long black hair hovered nearby, hesitant to act with the bear present, “You’re the assholes who ruined our ritual!”

  Geoff released the man, and touched the tattoo of a tiger below his collarbone. The tiger’s paws glowed faintly.

  The man’s relief at being released was short-lived, as he saw Geoff lift a viciously clawed hand and wind up to swipe at him. He cowered but the blow didn’t come.

  Geoff struggled against Jack’s tight grip on his arm, “Let go of me, Jack! They would have killed Trevor!”

  Jack moved between Geoff and the man. He put his hands on Geoff’s shoulders and forced him back a few feet, “Geoff, now is not the time. We’re all in the same shoes here. Vengeance can wait.” He had a strange darkness in his eyes and leaned in close to whisper in Geoff’s ear, “If they’re here, then Ryan probably is too. There’s safety in numbers. Who do you think he’ll pursue first? His friends, or enemies?”

  Geoff’s expression tightened, but he understood. It was surprisingly cold of Jack, but he knew that Jack was just as protective as he was, if not even more so. Geoff didn’t like leaving the men to be Ryan’s to deal with, but knew it was necessary in order to protect themselves.

  Geoff swallowed and thought more about Ryan. He had two protein bars, and that was it. He would grow hungry and Demon would show himself. But what if they were here more than just one day? What would Demon drive Ryan to do once his hunger became starvation?

  They would be dealing with a very dangerous and very intelligent predator.

  Jack noticed how Geoff paled, “Geoff, It’s us or them.” He tried to explain.

  “I understand.” Geoff nodded. He touched the tattoo once more and his claws shrunk until they were nails once more. He approached the man with the bun, “He’s right,” Geoff gestured to Jack, “We’ll need each other to survive, but first,” he kicked out and struck the man in the side of the knee.

  The man cried out and collapsed, clutching his leg. His friend ran over to him.

  “What the fuck, Geoff?!” Jack scolded.

  “Let’s keep moving.” Geoff ignored Jack, “Michael, lead us to the next person, and maybe some water.”

  “Water first.” Jack told Michael.

  The cultist with the bun got to his feet and began to limp forward as the group of them started moving.

  Seeing the limp, Jack realised what Geoff had done.

  Now there was visibly a weakest member of their group.

 

~*~

 

  “Water!” Jeremy shouted out and raced forward.

  Gavin was equally excited and crashed through the underbrush after Jeremy.

 

  Sunlight glinted off of a wide slow moving river. There wasn’t much of a shore; the trees ended abruptly and large rocks served as the riverbank.

 

  “I’m so bloody thirsty!” Gavin exclaimed, “How do you need to purify it?”

  Jeremy looked around, “If we can store the water somehow, I can purify it.” There were only rocks and trees, so Jeremy began to look through the large messenger bag he had filled with Geoff’s ingredients. There was no bowl or jug, but there was a large silver goblet. He pulled it out and presented it to Gavin, “We can take turns using this. I’ll have to purify it each time.”

  Jeremy carefully made his way over the slippery stone and filled the goblet from the river. Pulling it out, he brought it close to himself and closed his eyes. Running a finger around the rim, he began to mutter an incantation. He ran his finger around three times, and then looked at the water within, “That should have done it.” He offered the goblet to Gavin.

  Gavin hesitated, “You first.”

  Jeremy shrugged and downed the whole goblet. If the spell hadn’t worked, it’s not like they’d know until they got ill. He filled it again and repeated the spell.

  This time Gavin took the water and greedily drank it.

 

  They continued in this manner until neither could drink any more. Sated they lay back on the forest ground and listened to the burble of the water in satisfied silence.

 

  After a few minutes, Gavin felt himself drifting off, and forced himself to sit up, “Jeremy,” He turned to see Jeremy already asleep, “Oi.” He nudged him awake.

  “What?” Jeremy asked sleepily.

  “We can’t just sleep here, we should set up a fire, maybe make some sort of shelter.”

  Jeremy stretched, and pulled out his phone. He tapped at it a couple times, “There, I’ve set an alarm. We can just doze off and not worry about nightfall.”

  “Jeremy, what about animals during the day, Jeremy?” Gavin clearly wasn’t comfortable sleeping unprotected.

  Jeremy groaned and got to his feet, “You’re lucky you’re out here with me then.” He moved in further from the river edge and gestured for Gavin to follow.

  Gavin stayed close to Jeremy as Jeremy seemed to evaluate the area. Jeremy then crouched down and put his hands flat on the ground.

  The trees around them swayed as stone pushed its way up out of the ground to form a circular wall about six feet high around the two lads. Varying from a foot to three feet thick, the walls were fifteen feet in diameter.

  Jeremy exhaled and dropped down to the ground exhausted, “Better?” he asked Gavin.

  Gavin approached the wall to inspect it, “Incredible. But we’ll need to access the water again too. You didn’t make a door.”

  “I’ll make one later.” Jeremy removed the messenger bag and put it beneath his head, “Now I sleep, and you should too.”

  It was difficult to argue that when he himself was exhausted, so Gavin lay himself down in the shadow of the wall and attempted to get as comfortable as possible.

 

  It didn’t take long for them to pass out.

 

~*~

 

  Trevor was leading the way. He could smell water and was doing his best to track it down. Every so often he stopped to check that Ryan was managing to keep up with him. It was far easier for a fox to weave around the bushes and trees, but Ryan was following him surprisingly well.

  Ryan had all of Trevor’s clothing. He had tied Trevor’s jeans around his waist and slipped his shirt in to hang off them. Trevor’s shoes were slung over his shoulder with his socks and underwear stuffed inside. He had asked Trevor whether he preferred to be human or fox, and Trevor had argued that his fox senses would be of more use to them. It made sense, but it also meant Trevor was taking four steps for every one of Ryan’s, and Ryan worried about how long the fox could manage the pace.

  “Thank you again for the bar earlier.” Trevor thanked Ryan for what was probably the eighth time.

  Ryan shook his head, “I told you, it’s fine. You don’t have to keep thanking me.” He’d finished his own protein bar not even an hour ago. He had wanted to ration it for longer, but that was not a skill he had. He was pretty bad that way. It didn’t matter what the food was; as long as it was in front of him he’d eat it. Even if he wasn’t actually hungry.

  “But I want to. You could have easily saved it for yourself. We don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck out here.” Trevor continued.

  “How about this: you catch something like a rabbit for dinner, and we’ll call it even?” Ryan gave a crooked smile.

  Trevor laughed, “I can try, but not before I take a nap.” As if on cue he yawned.

  “You have a good point.” Ryan replied. Demon had been asleep for a while now, and Ryan knew that once he reached his own limit, he’d either have to wake Demon and let him take over, or find a place where he could sleep safely. Being able to sleep independently of each other had its benefits, but Ryan found that when one of them was asleep the other had trouble remaining fully alert as if their brain was only working at half capacity. It came close to being a zombie-like state.

  Slowly an idea formed in Ryan’s mind, “What if I carry you? Just point me in the direction of water, and then you can sleep while I get us there.” He knew it wouldn’t be fair to leave Trevor with Demon once he was forced to sleep, but Demon would be just as eager to find water as he was, and that meant Trevor would be safe.

  Trevor stopped in his tracks, “What? That’s hardly fair! You clearly need sleep too.”

  “Didn’t Geoff tell you anything about me?”

  Trevor sat down and shook his head.

  “I’m kinda two people. We don’t know exactly what’s up with me, but I have something living in my head that’s pretty supernatural. We can sleep while the other is awake; and while he’s a serious asshole, he’ll keep us moving.” Ryan explained without going into detail.

  “Huh, I guess that explains why you smell off.” Trevor stated, “You sure it’s okay to carry me?”

  “I smell off?” Ryan blinked.

  “Well yeah. Not completely weird, just… off. Outside the regular variance of human. Thought it was your soap or deodorant at first, but it’s kinda clear now that it’s not.” Trevor informed him.

  “Weird.” Ryan stated.

  “Yeah,” Trevor shrugged his fox shoulders, “Not worth worrying about. I mean even possessed people smell different, so if that’s kind of what’s going on with you, it makes sense.”

  There was a pause as Ryan thought it over, before pulling his attention back, “So should I just pick you up like I would a dog, or?”

  “I guess. Just avoid touching… my bits.” Trevor quietly said and stood back up.

  Ryan picked him up without issue, and Trevor slung himself over Ryan’s left shoulder.

  “Hey do you think I could lie across your shoulders? That way you could have both hands free.” Trevor suggested.

  “Uh, only if you think you could keep your balance once you fall asleep.” Ryan pointed out.

  Trevor gave it a thought, “You’re right, that would be too tough. This is fine.” He did his best to get comfortable and lay his head on his paws that hung over Ryan’s shoulder.

  Once sure that Trevor was secure, Ryan continued on in the direction they had been travelling.

 

  Ryan managed another good forty minutes of travel before he had to mentally prod Demon awake. Since they shared thoughts and memories, Ryan didn’t need to explain anything, and Demon begrudgingly took control.

  Rye settled down and started the process of blocking out all the sensory information coming in from Ryan. It was never quite as peaceful a rest as when they were both unconscious, but it was far better than none at all.

  Ryan yawned as Rye finally fell asleep. He’d always found it interesting how they didn’t dream unless they were both asleep and dreaming together. It made for some awkward dreams sometimes, but was still fun to see just what he could get Rye to do or enjoy.

 

  Water. That was what he needed right now. He could only hope it was close.

  Once he got water, well, then food would be his next concern.

  He looked at the fox in his arms. His meat would probably be terrible. Trevor was proving useful, and who knew, maybe he could catch them dinner?

  Either way it would be worth it to keep him around for just a while longer.

  He felt his stomach contract in hunger. That bar had hardly been enough. Too bad he didn’t know much about wilderness survival, or he would start keeping an eye out for good berries and safe mushrooms. But he was sure he could build a lean-to and maybe start a fire. Maybe.

  And if anything decided to fuck with him, he’d murder the shit out of it. Then probably eat it. Assuming he could.

  Honestly, he’d consider eating pretty much anything at this point. He could deal with any diseases or parasites once he was out of here.

 

  He noticed movement from the corner of his eye, and slowly sunk down to be less visible while he tried to figure out what it was.

  Mostly obscured it appeared human, and was clearly struggling in pulling something large and dark green.

  Ryan’s curiosity had him creep nearer.

  It was indeed a human. A woman with braided chestnut hair was trying to pull a sizable piece of fabric free of some thorns.

  Ryan watched as she worked the fabric free. His right hand went to the strange knife he still had. He had hung it from Trevor’s jeans, by looping it through its strange handle. He had a second thought and moved Trevor’s shirt to cover up the knife.

  If she ended up a threat, he would kill her, but for now, maybe it was a good idea to recruit her.

  Ryan straightened, “Hey!” He called out.

  The woman spun around to face him, eyes wide.

  “Are you lost?” He asked.

  She nodded, and her eyes rested on the fox he held, “Are you a hunter?”

  Ryan thought his outfit was hardly something a hunter would wear, “No. Just heading over to get some water.”

  “W-water?!” The woman swallowed.

  Ryan sized her up, “Yeah, just come with me. It’s a bit a ways away still, though.”

  She nodded, “Thank you.” She bundled up her piece of fabric and Ryan realised it was a large cloak.

  She was one of the cultists.

  “I’m Ryan, by the way.” Ryan told her. If she didn’t recognise him from the house, he wasn’t going to tell her.

  “Shannon.” The woman introduced herself, “I don’t know how I got into these woods.”

  Ryan gave a friendly chuckle, “They do have a way of trapping people if you don’t know where you’re going.”

  “I think it was magic.” The woman nervously smiled, but was feeling more and more at ease around Ryan, “Are you from around here?”

  “You could say that.” Ryan smiled.

  “And the fox?”

  “Oh this little guy? He’s just tuckered out.” Ryan scratched Trevor between the ears, but Trevor was out cold by this point, “Found him passed out a bit of a way back. All he needs is some sleep and a bit of water.”

  “I feel much the same.” She moved up right next to Ryan, “I’m glad you found me, I thought I was going to die out here.”

  Ryan laughed jovially, and started back in the direction of water, “Oh no worries. You’ll be safe with me.” He looked at the cloak and wondered if he could get her to divulge more about the cult, “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you carrying around such a heavy piece of clothing? It’s quite warm this time of year.”

  She looked to the cloak in her arms, “Oh, uh, some friends and I were doing something and I got separated.”

  “Dare I inquire what that something was?”

  “Uh, it was a ritual for a forest god.”

  “Ah.” Ryan said as if he understood completely.

  Shannon smiled and her cheeks reddened, “Yeah, the robe was part of that. I wasn’t planning on ending up in an actual forest, but now that I think about it, these might be his woods. It would make sense wouldn’t it?”

  “I guess it would.” Ryan had been thinking the same since Trevor mentioned that the necklace that had been destroyed had been a token to a forest god, “Which god is this by any chance? Maybe I’ve heard of them?”

   “A forest guardian god so old it has no name. We were calling upon its blessing.”

  “Hmm.”

  “It’s been said that it was the god who gave man the gift of turning into beasts; skinwalkers, not were-beasts.”

  “So you wanted this gift for yourselves.” Ryan put two and two together. They were going to kill Trevor in the hopes of becoming skinwalkers themselves.

  “Yes.” Her cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red.

  Ryan ignored her blushing, and pretended not to know the outcome of the ritual, “Did you succeed?”

  She shook her head, “No, we were rudely interrupted. The ritual was ruined.”

  “Shame.” Ryan replied without remorse. He heard a sound from up ahead and stopped, holding up a finger for Shannon to remain quiet.

  It was a low whispering hush of a sound and Ryan recognised it to be the call of running water.

  With renewed vigor he increased his pace and made his way towards the sound.

  “What is it?” Shannon hurried behind him. As they neared the source, she heard it too and perked up, “Water!”

  Ryan pushed his way through the trees until he broke out of the undergrowth and onto a sand bar in the bend of a shallow slow moving river.

  He grabbed Trevor’s snout to prevent him from speaking, and shook him awake.

  Trevor woke and tried to say something, but Ryan’s grip kept him silent. He was about to get very angry when Ryan twisted his head towards Shannon. He recognised the cultist immediately and realised why Ryan was keeping him quiet.

  Ryan lowered Trevor to the ground, “Alright little guy, please don’t bite me, but I found you some water.” His tone was as if he was speaking to a pet.

  If the cultist didn’t know his animal was a fox, then Trevor wasn’t going to let her know. He decided to play the part, and quickly jogged over to the edge of the river to drink.

  “Wow, he must have been really thirsty and tired. I wouldn’t have expected a fox to be so well mannered.” Shannon admired.

  Ryan shrugged, “What can I say, I’m good with animals.” He shot Trevor a smirk, and approached the water’s edge a little way down from him. He kneeled down and cupped some water. It looked fairly clear, and when he tried it, it tasted safe enough.

  “Aren’t you supposed to boil any water you find?” Shannon came to kneel not too far from him.

  Ryan was well aware that that was what you were supposed to do, and knew that if Rye were awake he would be screaming at him for it, “Do you have any cups or pots on you that I can’t see?” His friendly demeanour partially dropped, but he picked it back up, “A risk of illness is better than not having any water at all.”

  Shannon watched as Ryan downed handful after handful of water, and her will broke. She was far too thirsty to worry about germs.

  Once his thirst was satisfied, Ryan stood and brushed the sand from his pants. He looked around at just where they were. The top of the sandbar was quite flat, with only a few grasses growing there, and it had the river on three sides. It would be a great place to spend the night, with them only having to worry about anything coming from the forest. Any creature that would try to approach from the river would have a bit of a swim, and would undoubtedly create some noise in doing so.

  Now he weighed what he wanted to do with Shannon. Having the extra pair of eyes keeping watch at night would let him sleep longer, but that meant having to keep up the façade. He could just kill her now and be done with it. Send her down the river and take that cultist robe of hers. It would make a great blanket.

  Shannon looked up and noticed Ryan absently watching her, “What’s up?”

  Ryan smiled kindly, “Debating how we should spend the night. This would make a good campsite, but we also have enough time to try and find another.”

  “I think we should stay here then, why risk not finding another good site? Let’s start setting up, and collecting firewood.”

  “Good plan.” Ryan clapped her on the shoulder, “I’ll start collecting wood, if you can start clearing some of this grass and find a few rocks to make a fire pit.”

  Shannon nodded and smiled back at him.

  The second Ryan turned away from her to head into the woods, he lost his smile, replacing it with a look of spite and disdain. Once among the trees Trevor approached him.

  “Why is she hanging out with us?! She’s one of the cultists you had to save me from!” Trevor hurried behind Ryan.

  “She doesn’t know who we are. I figure we can use her for now, and honestly, worst case scenario? We use her for meat.” Ryan answered him.

  “Meat?! You’re not serious are you? Are you talking about eating her?!” Trevor was horrified.

  Ryan shrugged, “No. Well maybe. We’ll see how bad things get. If it’s my life on the line, you can be sure of it.”

  “What the hell, man?” Trevor couldn’t believe it, “It was a serious understatement when Ryan called you an asshole.”

  That made Ryan laugh. It was a loud patronising thing filled with malevolence, “ _Oh you have no idea_.” He turned to Trevor with a sneer.

  Trevor’s ears dropped and he found himself backing away.

  If Ryan noticed, he didn’t seem to care, and continued his search for firewood. He spotted a large downed branch and made his way towards it. It was about the size of a small tree, and had dried out perfectly.

  The smaller branches would be great tinder, and the larger ones should get them most of the way through the night. All he had to do was get it back and break it up.

  Trevor watched as Ryan tried to drag the whole thing through the underbrush, only to have it catch on every plant and root. He sat down to observe the struggle as Ryan decided to try breaking the wood into smaller easier to move pieces.

  “I know you have this weird comradery lie going on with the cultist, but you’ll have to find an excuse to let me stay by the fire. I’m not spending the night alone.” Trevor told him.

  Ryan didn’t even look at him as he responded, “I honestly don’t care if you do or not.” He braced a foot against the thickest part of the branch and grabbed onto another smaller branch. With a sharp pull he snapped the smaller branch free. It was about as wide around as his wrist, and he threw it aside to break off another.

  Trevor’s tail twitched in annoyance, “Do you even care about anything?”

  “Yeah, three things: Me, myself, and I.” Ryan snapped off the branch and moved on to a third.

  Trevor scoffed, “Everyone cares about _something._ Even demons have pets they dote on.”

  “If I had a Hell Hound I’d take good care of it too.” Ryan replied and began to pull on the branch. When it finally broke, he ended up hitting himself in the side of the face.

  The sudden pain woke Rye, _What_ – _oh._ He ran through what had happened since he fell asleep, _Oh god, you just drank straight from a river?! What do you think this is? 127 Hours?_

Trevor snickered.

  Ryan threw him a murderous glare.

  _Hey be nice to him._ Rye scolded.

  _And you go back to sleep!_ Ryan told Rye.

  Rye evaluated himself and found that he was actually feeling quite alright, _Nah._

Ryan groaned, but was pleased that he would have his full use of his brain again. He grabbed up the broken pieces of the branch, and after arranging them to lie narrower, he resumed dragging them to the river.

  Trevor followed by his heels, “So what are you? And why did you choose to take up residence in Ryan?”

  “I don’t know what I am. All we know is that I’m not a demon.” Ryan told him and then argued, “And I’m as much Ryan as he is; I’ve been here just as long. Experienced all the same shit from shitting in diapers to this shit.” Great now he was starting to sound like _Geoff_.

  “You were born together?” Trevor kept pace.

  “As far as either of us can tell.” Ryan answered.

  “So what do you think you are, then? If you had to guess.” Trevor was now intrigued and wondered what theories Geoff and Jack would have.

  Ryan shrugged, “Not a demon. Jack’s most recent guess is some sort of parasite – which I refuse to believe.” He wanted to move the topic away from himself, “How did you know you were a skinwalker?”

  “My mom was one, so it was just kind of a fact of life for me.” Trevor answered, “Apparently since my dad wasn’t one, it was a bit of a guess on whether or not I would be able to shift, but I did before I was even a full year old, so that answered that.”

  “As a human you’re what, maybe 130-140 pounds? And as a fox you’re not even a quarter of that. What the hell happens to the rest? Even with magic, the conservation of mass is followed, so where the hell does that mass go?” Ryan suddenly asked as if it had been bothering him for a while.

  Trevor blinked, “Uh,” that was not a question that he had ever had.

  “Does it just exist in some incorporeal fashion until it is needed once again? And if so how the hell do you manage the right amount each time? Is there like a shared pool of mass all shifters pull from, or is it individual?” Ryan dove right into hypothetical territory.

  “Dude, how the hell am I supposed to know? I hadn’t even questioned it until now…”

  “Michael turns into a fucking Kodiak  – that’s like twelve hundred pounds to gain in the span of a few seconds. Where is that stored?” Ryan continued.

  “I don’t know, man. It’s magic.” Trevor was now really bothered by the question. Just _where_ did all his human mass go?

  They emerged from the woods back onto the sandbar and fell silent. Trevor fell back so it appeared that he was following Ryan from a wary distance, while Ryan slipped back into his friendly façade.

  “I found a wonderful amount of wood.” Ryan announced as he approached Shannon.

  Shannon had torn up a great deal of grass and created a crude fire pit from an assortment of rocks.

  She jumped to her feet at the sight of him, “Nice!” she spotted Trevor by the edge of the woods, “Oh, it looks like the fox followed you back.”

  Ryan looked back and feigned surprise, “Seems we’ve made a friend.” He turned to Shannon, “Know how to start a fire?”

 

~*~

 

  “Oh sweet Jesus!” Geoff exclaimed and dropped to his knees before the reeds surrounding a small pond.

  “You can’t drink pond water!” The cultist with long black hair warned him.

  They had maybe two hours before the sun would begin to set.

  “I can and will.” Geoff replied and forced himself to his feet, “Michael, start digging and get water to flow into the hole.”

  Michael cocked his head. He was dead tired, thirsty, hungry, and ready to pass out. The last thing he wanted was to do more work.

  “If you separate some water from the pond, Geoff can purify it to make it safe to drink.” Jack explained. He sat himself down against a tree and closed his eyes. He felt ready to accept death.

  Michael huffed, but began to dig.

  The cultist with his hair in a bun looked out at the pond. He seemed to consider the lily pads and reeds, “I’ve heard you can eat the roots of water lilies.”

  “Then get in there and grab some!” Geoff ordered him, he then turned to the other cultist, “And you: get us as much firewood as you can. We don’t have much light left.”

  In the past few hours the cultists had quickly learned to do what Geoff asked of them.

  Geoff returned himself to the ground and lay down, “Jack?”

  Jack didn’t open his eyes, and made a grunt to acknowledge that he was listening.

  “Ever go gigging?” Geoff asked.

  Jack opened his eyes and straightened, “What?”

  “You know, gigging – frog hunting. You ever do that?” Geoff clarified.

  Jack leaned back again, “No, I haven’t. Did you see frogs in the pond?”

  “Hey, Greasy!” Geoff called to the long-haired cultist removing his shoes and pants so that he could enter the pond.

  “Stop calling me that!” The cultist protested.

   Geoff ignored his request, “Do you see any frogs in there? Or maybe fish?”

  “There’s definitely frogs.”

  “Cool.” Geoff rolled over to check on Michael’s progress.

  Michael excavated quite the sizable hole and was splashing water down from the pond into it. It was all turning to mud, but Geoff wasn’t worried.

  Geoff heaved himself up and approached the newly made mud puddle. He began to run his hand around its edge and mutter an incantation. When his hand finished its third lap around the puddle, the water turned crystal clear. He was less than graceful as he dropped his face into the water and began to drink deeply.

  Having his fill, he motioned for Michael to drink and turned to Jack, “Jack, come get some water!”

  Michael emptied most of the water, but Jack still had enough to satisfy his thirst.

  “Fill it up again for Greasy and Man-Bun.” Geoff told Michael.

  Michael nodded and began to splash more water into the hole.

  Once more full, Geoff repeated the spell. He couldn’t resist drinking a bit more, before calling out to the cultists.

  Man-Bun rushed from the woods with an armful of wood. He dropped it all not too far from them and then raced over to almost dive into the water.

  Greasy splashed free of the pond dragging eight water lilies behind him. He pushed Man-Bun aside and began to drink.

  Geoff had moved over to the firewood and began to arrange it. They would need more if they wanted a fire for the whole night, but for now it would suffice. He snapped his fingers and the wood was engulfed in green flame. Slowly the wood caught fire and the green turned to a more natural orange.

  Geoff was beyond exhausted at this point, “Hey, fuckheads.” He called out to the cultists, “Get more wood and figure out how to cook those lilies. I’m done here.” he waved Michael and Jack over, “Come by the fire, I need to sleep.”

  Michael and Jack were more than happy to oblige. Michael stretched out, and both gents leaned up against him.

  Geoff was out instantly, while Jack forced himself to remain awake. Soon he heard Michael begin to snore and was sorely tempted to join in, but he still felt he couldn’t trust the cultists.

  It wasn’t until the cultists returned with more wood, wrapped themselves in their thick robes, and fell asleep, that Jack finally allowed himself to drift off.

 

  When Jack rolled himself awake, the sky was black and speckled with stars. Geoff was seated near the fire with a large light brown tuber skewered on a stick and was attempting to cook it. Man-Bun was the only other one awake, and he was watching Geoff intently.

  Jack wasn’t sure just how long he had gone without food but it had to be well over twelve hours. It was definitely long enough to make Geoff’s roasting lily root smell enticing.

  Geoff noticed Jack was awake and gave him a small nod.

  Michael was softly snoring, and frogs from the pond were croaking out a loud chorus. It was quite beautiful, and had they not been lost and starving, Jack would have even called it peaceful.

  What surprised Jack the most was the complete lack of mosquitos. Especially this close to standing water.

  “No mosquitos?” Jack quietly asked so as to not wake the others.

  Geoff pulled up his shirt to reveal his tattoo of a bat, “You always asked me what the bat was for.” He smiled, “Main reason was exactly this. I can’t stand bugs.”

  “Thank god for it too.” Man-Bun added, “I never thought I’d be thankful to be around a warlock.”

  “That’s rude.” Geoff chided.

  “Sabotaging our ritual was rude.” Man-Bun pulled up his cloak over his shoulders.

  “Kidnapping our friend was ruder.” Jack argued.

  Geoff pulled the root out of the fire and used another stick to poke at it. I had grown soft like a baked potato. He decided to let it cool a bit before attempting to taste it. It was about eight inches in length and really did look and smell like a baked potato.

  Testing its temperature with a finger, Geoff decided it was finally cool enough to pull off of his stick. He broke the tuber in half and the inside was starchy with large holes running throughout. He gave it a cursory sniff, before taking a bite.

  “Hmm, you know what? I think this is the same as lotus root. I didn’t think they were the same plant, but it definitely tastes the same. Would be better with salt or some pepper, but this should be a good source of food for us.” Geoff told them. He took a big bite out of one half and then handed it to Jack. The other half he gave to Man-Bun, before stabbing his stick through another raw root and placing it over the fire, “Might not even have to bother with trying to catch frogs.”

  Jack happily ate the root and was eager for more, but knew it was only fair for the next one to be Geoff’s.

  “Do you think we should wake them so they can eat?” Jack asked when Geoff finished his root and began roasting a third.

  “Yeah, good idea. They’ll sleep better with some food in them.” Geoff agreed.

   Jack gently nudged Michael awake, and Man-Bun kicked the sole of Greasy’s shoe. Both woke up and smelled the cooking food.

  Michael lifted his head and breathed in the aroma. The next lotus root was all his, and then the one after that went to Greasy. The sixth was once again spilt between Jack and Man-bun, and the seventh was Michael’s again. All full by this point, Geoff looked at the final remaining root and decided to cook it as well. It could be a small snack for them, or a little breakfast before they went out to gather more.

  No longer hungry or thirsty, and now nicely rested, the mood between them lightened considerably.

 

  That was, until they heard the screams.

  They all jumped to their feet and looked in the direction of the sound, only for more screams to sound. It sounded like three men screaming in fear and then agony, before one by one they were snuffed out.

  The cultists seemed to recognise the voices and broke down in absolute hysterics.

  “That sounded like Jim and– and–” Greasy choked out.

  “What happened to them?!” Man-Bun almost screeched the question.

  Geoff looked to Jack, who was already looking at him, “You don’t think that’s Ry–”

  A chorus of high pitched giggles echoed through the woods, sounding like unnaturally warped children’s laughter.

  “That’s definitely not Ryan.” Jack’s eyes widened in horror.

  “Oh god! What was that?!!!” Greasy cried out.

  “Shut up!” Geoff tried to silence him and looked to their fire. He debated putting it out, but instead pulled a branch out of it and brandished it like a torch, “The last thing we want is whatever that was, coming for us!”

  They were all on high alert as the woods fell quiet again.

  “Do you think it’s fae?” Geoff whispered to Jack, “Because if it is we might be able to barter our way to freedom.”

  “It didn’t sound like there was much bartering going on.” Jack observed.

  The giggles started up again, closer to them, but quieter, as if snickering about some inside joke.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Geoff muttered to himself as if were a mantra.

  Something crashed through foliage directly behind them, and they all whipped around to face it.

  There was nothing there.

  Greasy suddenly yelped and when they turned back to him, they were just in time to see him get dragged off by the leg into the undergrowth.

  That had them all shouting and crowding near the fire.

  Geoff waved his burning branch defensively in front of him and something in the undergrowth shied away from them.

  They heard Greasy scream in pain and beg for release, then fall quiet.

  “Shane!” Man-Bun screamed but didn’t move to go after his friend.

  Michael pushed his way in front of the group and stood up on his hind legs. He took a breath and then let out a bellowing roar.

  Now it was whatever was in the forest’s turn to shriek and scream. Michael gave another angry roar, and they could hear the creatures flee with high pitched yells in some unknown language.

  Michael dropped back down and snarled at the trees.

  Man-Bun was in tears and shaking violently, “They took Shane!”

  Everyone was shaken and Geoff was extremely pale, He returned his branch to the fire, “We need to make more fires. Block ourselves off.”

  “We don’t have enough wood.” Jack told him, “And we shouldn’t venture out.”

  “Shit.” Geoff realised Jack was right. He began to rifle through his pockets and found the small pouch he had taken from Jeremy, “I can hopefully keep them at bay, and then we can take turns keeping watch.”

  “As if I’m going to sleep any time soon!” Man-Bun told him.

  “I agree with him, there is no way I’m sleeping knowing those things are out there.” Jack crossed his arms, “I could summon Terry, see how they react to that.”

  “Summon?!” Man-Bun was taken aback, “You are not summoning any shit while I’m around! I know how summonings end!”

  “Shut up!” Geoff didn’t have the patience to deal with him. He turned back to Jack, “Terry requires too much blood, and since we’re on dirt? We’d need even more because most of it would get absorbed by the ground. So unless you want to kill Man-Bun to make it happen–”

  “WHAT?!” Man-Bun shrieked.

  “I’m not killing anyone.” Jack said mostly to calm Man-Bun down, “What are you planning on doing instead?”

  “The same spell I used back with the cultists.” Geoff held up the pouch, “If it doesn’t keep them away, at the very least it will light up the woods and we’ll be able to see them coming.”

  Jack appeared concerned, “I know you’re feeling better after a nap and some food, but you should really save your energy.”

  “For what, Jack? An emergency?” Geoff was patronising, “Like, I don’t know, being hunted by freak giggling monsters?! Do you honestly expect it to get worse?!”

  Jack shut his mouth at that.

  “I’m casting the spell.” Geoff declared, and cupped the pouch in his hands. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

  Bright white light began to spill from between his fingers. Geoff opened his eyes and lifted his hands to his mouth. He blew gently over the light and like embers, small specks of light floated away on his breath. As they travelled away from him, they grew in size and began to spread out between the trees.

  Geoff closed his hands around the pouch and the source light extinguished, leaving only the orbs behind.

  He had created a good thirty of the orbs, and they all grew to about the size of a beach ball as they lazily drifted between branches and around trees. They hung in the air at an assortment of heights, but no higher than ten feet, and whenever they encountered an obstacle, they bounced off and slowly moved in the opposite direction.

  It was hauntingly beautiful.

  Michael watched an orb gently bounce off the surface of the pond and back up into the air. It barely even left a ripple.

  “Those are a lot nicer when they aren’t glued to your face.” Man-Bun said with muted awe.

  “Don’t fucking kidnap people!” Geoff scolded him.

  “How long can you hold the spell?” Jack asked as he watched Geoff seat himself by the fire once more.

  Geoff pulled out his phone to check the time, and realized it was still in the wrong time zone. Not only that, but he had all of 11% battery left. He shut his phone off, and looked up at the moon instead.

  It was either just before midnight, or just after, “I can last until close to morning… or right until dawn. Depends what time it is.” Geoff answered.

  As far as any of them could tell, the surrounding woods were empty, but the orbs cast strange shifting shadows that made it difficult to be sure.

  “Do you hear or smell anything, Michael?” Jack inquired.

  Michael shook his head, but was still reluctant to lower his guard.

  “I just hope everyone else is far enough away not to end up on those things’ radar.” Jack stated aloud and seated himself next to Geoff.

 

~*~

 

  Jeremy was shaken awake by Gavin. He blinked a few times and saw their small fire was down to embers. He yawned, “What is it? Do you have to go pee again?”

  Their stone shelter had been modified at nightfall to be more of a dome. It had a hole to allow the smoke from their fire to escape, but would protect them from wind and even the worst rain. The only design flaw was lack of a door. Gavin had refused to sleep if there was any gap in their barrier, so if he needed to exit, it was up to Jeremy to lower a section of the wall and clear a path.

  “No,” Gavin’s eyes were wide in the dying firelight, “I think I heard screaming.” His voice was hushed.

  Jeremy pushed himself up and leaned against the stone, “Screaming?” he whispered back.

  Gavin nodded, “Human screaming, like they were in pain, and then it just stopped.”

  “Maybe it was an animal – I know raccoons can sound like people.” Jeremy suggested.

  Gavin shook his head, “It was far away, but it was definitely a person.”

  Jeremy shrugged, “I don’t kno–”

  Gavin’s hand flew to cover Jeremy’s mouth and he put a finger from his other hand up to his lips.

  Jeremy’s brows knit together and he was ready to slap Gavin’s hand away when he heard it too.

  There was something tapping on the stone of their shelter with what sounded like another stone. It started off to the right of them and then travelled left around the whole wall.

  Gavin removed his hand, and Jeremy could only stare at him in shared horror.

  The tap returned to its starting point and became a stony scrape. Then there was a harder tap as if a rock had been thrown at the wall.

  The boys were frozen in place, and only jumped when a high pitched voice began to speak. It sounded like a child attempting to mimic a goofy gremlin-like voice. It was clearly confused, but other than that, whatever it was saying was a mystery.

  A second voice answered the first, and then it sounded like a stick was struck against the wall several times. The two voices began to converse in their strange tongue.

  Jeremy was ready to piss himself, and seeing what he could make out from Gavin’s face, Gavin was feeling the same.

  The voices quieted down. A moment passed, then two.

  Gavin’s eye caught movement above him, and he shrieked.

  Jeremy’s head whipped up to follow where Gavin was pointing.

  On the edge of the hole they had left for smoke, the silhouette of a small head and shoulders was peeking in at them.

  Jeremy’s hands immediately went to the wall and the stone hole above them sealed up.

  “It had no face!” Gavin was shaking.

  The voices started up. They sounded excited and were louder than before. To the lads’ horror, even more voices began to speak, until it sounded like there was a crowd outside their walls.

  Jeremy was in not a state to say anything coherent, so he nodded furiously. The creatures’ face had indeed been flat and featureless. He hadn’t sealed the chimney hole wholly, as he still had enough of his wits to know that he would suffocate himself and Gavin if he did.

  Both of them stared at the small hole as shadows passed over it and child-like giggles sounded.

  Gavin gathered himself and moved away from the wall, and to the fire. He carefully stirred it up until there where flames once more. It would give them more light.

  Jeremy hugged himself and shook his head, eyes not leaving the hole. When Gavin had stirred the fire, it had created enough light to clearly see small humanoid hands reaching in and grasping at them. They were far enough above them that both he and Gavin could stand at full height and not get grabbed, but it was extremely unsettling to see.

  “Evil monkey children!” Gavin gasped and crouched down cautiously.

  “This not how I want to die!” Jeremy finally spoke, “This can’t be happening…” he shook his head again.

  Gavin rejoined Jeremy and could only whimper as one of the creatures was small enough to shove their whole arm through, and their hand clawed around blindly.

  They could only hope that the creatures would disappear once the sun rose.

 

~*~

 

  Ryan lay asleep on his side, cradled by the cool sand. The weight of Shannon’s large cloak kept him warm, even though they had never managed to start a fire. Curled up in his arms, close to his chest was something warm and furry. In the haze of slumber, he pulled the object closer and tightened his hold on it.

  Trevor awoke with a squawk as Ryan squeezed his ribs. He flailed momentarily until he managed to wake up Ryan with a good kick to the gut.

  Ryan flinched and opened his eyes. He released Trevor, and blinked at the pink sky above them. The first thing he noticed was his hunger. It was gnawing away at him as if his innards were being twisted in a vice. He moaned and curled in on himself, and then remembered he wasn’t alone.

  He had Shannon.

  She would be too much meat for one meal, and to leave the rest would be a massive waste…

  Would she mind losing an arm? She could still walk without it, and maybe even have some herself if there was any left.

  He really doubted she would fine with such a proposal.

  It was all fun to think about hypothetically, but he didn’t even know if he’d actually be able to stomach raw meat. Cooked, sure. He had no moral qualms – if anything it only made his killing _more_ acceptable. Killing for food was always considered more ethical than killing for sport… did it really matter if the prey was human?

  Like _really?_

  Ryan rolled away from Trevor who was stretching out his limbs, and realized there was no one lying next to him on the other side. He sat up and looked across the sandbar. She was nowhere to be seen.

  Well that was just fucking great.

  “Trevor, where’s Shannon?” He turned to the fox.

  Trevor looked around in surprise, “Maybe she left to pee?”

  “Shannon! You there?!” Ryan called out to the woods.

  There was no reply and Ryan growled in frustration.

  Trevor was surprised at the sheer animalistic nature of the growl, but wasn’t going to point it out, “Why? What do you need her for? She was annoying anyway.”

  Ryan stood and brushed the sand from his skin and clothes. He rolled up the large robe, “She was our emergency rations.” He started going through the bundle of Trevor’s clothes he had used as a pillow. He found the knife and put it into his back pocket. It only half fit, but it was secure there.

  “Wait, you were fucking serious about that cannibalistic shit?!” Trevor was aghast, “ _The fuck is wrong with you_?!”

  “I’m hungry!” Ryan snapped angrily.

  “Like I’m not?!” Trevor argued.

  Ryan snarled and turned away from him, back towards the woods, “SHANNON!” he bellowed loud enough to spook some sparrows.

  “Put other Ryan back in charge!” Trevor demanded.

  Ryan scoffed and moved over to the river edge for a morning drink.

  He washed his face and looked at his reflection. Man, did he look haggard.

  A cool morning breeze chilled his still wet skin, and brought with it an interesting scent.

  Trevor picked it up before he did, “Ryan! I smell–”

  Ryan recognised it, “Blood.” He finished Trevor’s sentence and the hair on the back of his neck stood.

  “It’s coming from the trees.” Trevor was immediately concerned.

  Ryan had to investigate. It didn’t smell rotten, and that could mean a potential meal. He left the sandbar and went into the forest.

  Afraid to be left alone, Trevor reluctantly followed him, “What are you doing?!” he hissed and his ears lay flat against his skull.

  “Finding the source of the smell.” Ryan explained.

  They didn’t have to wander far. In fact, it was almost impossible to miss, as if it had been left specifically for them to find.

  Shannon was dead. That much was obvious with most of her vital organs skewered onto sticks stood up in the ground. Her body was hung up in a tree, and her body cavity was carved open. Most unusually, poison ivy leaves had been woven in with her long braid, and fresh green leaves carpeted the ground below her.

  Whatever had happened to her, it had happened recently.

  “Huh.” Ryan tilted his head and took in the scene passively. This wasn’t his handiwork, and even if he somehow just didn’t remember doing it, it was all too ornate to be his. This was ritualistic in its construction.

  Trevor was vomiting somewhere behind Ryan. He had no food in his stomach, so it was all water, but it was just as violent and unpleasant.

  Ryan turned to him. “What would do something like this?”

  Trevor was too busy being ill to answer, so Ryan decided to approach the corpse and better inspect just what had been done to Shannon.

  He stepped onto the carpet of green leaves.

  A snare snapped tight on his ankle and violently pulled Ryan upwards into the tree canopy.

  Ryan shouted in surprise as he was flipped upside-down and dragged up by his ankle a good fifteen feet into the air. As he swung he twisted his head to look back at the forest floor.

  Trevor was below him, looking up in fear and astonishment, “What’s going on?!”

  “Does it look like I know?!” Ryan saw what had snared him. It appeared to be a thin but strong vine.

  A rock struck his chest, tossed from somewhere among the canopy. It had hit him hard enough to sting, but not enough to cause any damage.

  Another rock was thrown at him, and then another. Soon he was being pelted. He had to cover his face defensively.

  Trevor yelped as he too was hit by a rock.

  Ryan cried out as a stabbing pain erupted in his thigh. His hand grabbed his leg and felt a wooden shaft lodged in his flesh. It was too long to be an arrow, but far too short to be a javelin or spear. It had lodged itself about an inch deep, and Ryan pulled it free with a cry.

  Victorious shouts rung out among the trees from all around him.

  Ryan barely had time to examine the weapon when another hit him in the chest. This second one didn’t hit with the same force, and didn’t even manage to break through his shirt. The impact would bruise, however.

  Something was throwing rocks and sharpened sticks at him.

  And that something was happy about it.

  More rocks and another sharpened stick hit him. This time the stick managed to twist in the air and hit Ryan’s gut with its shaft.

  “You suck at this!” Ryan shouted into the trees. Clearly they wanted him dead, or at the very least, incapacitated, but they were not very good at it.

  Ryan spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, but by the time he looked towards it, it was gone.

  Trevor, however, had managed to catch a glimpse, “Ryan, it’s nymphs!” he exclaimed as another rock managed to strike him, “I’m going to go find help! Hold on!”

  “Wait!” Ryan called to him, but Trevor had already disappeared into the undergrowth. One of the miniature spears struck true and sunk about half an inch deep into Ryan’s right breast, he cried out at the pain and flipped the trees off, “FUCK OFF!”

  A rock hit him in the forehead in response. High pitched cheers and giggles echoed around him.

  He remembered the knife in his pocket. His hands went to his jeans and felt nothing, “Aw _shit_!” it must have fallen out. Looking around, he saw the trees weren’t too far away. They were out of arms’ reach but not if he could get a good swing going.

  A spear scraped his back as it flew by, and whoops of victory were exclaimed by the nymphs.

  Ryan did his best to ignore them and his wounds as he began to move his weight rhythmically side to side. It had the desired effect, and he was soon a mere foot away from the nearest branch at his apex. He fumbled his first grab, but caught himself on the second.

  Realizing that Ryan was attempting to free himself, the nymphs began to shriek and shout at him angrily. They redoubled their efforts in throwing things at him, and Ryan had to bite his lip not to cry out as spear hit him right in the side.

  He pulled himself along the branch as far as the snare around his ankle would let him go, and prayed that the branch wouldn’t break under his weight. It was a massive relief to no longer be upside-down.

  He looked up to see if there were any branches higher up that he could reach. To get higher would slacken the vine holding him, and give him more room to free himself. He was in luck, and managed to grab hold of a thick branch, pulling himself up further. Once high enough, he threw his arms over the branch and used his free leg to steady himself on the one below.

  His muscles would be killing him once this was over. Only of course, if the nymphs didn’t kill him first.

  It was hard to believe that it had been the nymphs who had killed Shannon – they were hurting Ryan, but by no measure were the injuries fatal. In fact, it was quite pathetic. The level of damage wasn’t matching up. Yet it was difficult to argue that the trap _wasn’t_ the doing of the nymphs, because _oh boy_ were they ever making use of it. It was a proper ambush.

  He caught movement from the corner of his eye again. It came from towards the trunk of the tree he was clinging too, and this time when he whipped his head over to see, there was actually something there.

  Two feet tall with child-like features, a nymph was crouched on the branch not three feet from Ryan. Its skin was a light sky blue and it appeared feminine. It wore no clothes save for a mask. The mask was wooden and bleached white. It covered the full face and was featureless, without any decoration or even eye-holes. The nymph’s hair was almost as long as it was tall, and was moss covered with small forget-me-not flowers blooming from it as if the hair sustained them.

  In its hand, the nymph held a knife made of polished wood. It looked frighteningly sharp.

 

  Ryan bared his teeth and snarled at the nymph. That knife could definitely do him some damage, but if he could maybe steal it away… would it be enough to cut through the vine?

  The nymph raised the knife defensively and took a couple of fearful steps back.

  Ryan sneered, _Good,_ he thought. If they feared him, he could use it against them.

  He glared at the nymph, its mask made it difficult to read, but after a few seconds of hesitation, it began to inch closer. It brandished the knife and cautiously stepped forward across the branch.

  Ryan had no idea how intelligent nymphs were, but they were clearly smart enough to build a trap. So he kept his eyes on the nymph and let it come as close to him as possible.

  When the nymph readied itself to swipe at Ryan with its knife, Ryan pushed off the lower branch with his free leg, and lunged at the blue creature. With one hand he grabbed the knife, and the other went for the nymph’s leg.

  The instant his fingers closed on the knife, the nymph panicked and fled, disappearing in a whirlwind of blue flower petals.

  Ryan could feel the blade of the knife cut into his skin, but grabbed it tight, determined that it become his. The snare on his ankle went taut from his leap, and yanked him back, pulling him out of the tree.

  The nymphs began to scream, and Ryan could only yell as he swung back upside-down over nothing but open air.

  His momentum took him up into the branches of a tree on the opposite side, scratching his skin and catching his clothes. Most of the branches snapped and broke, falling to the ground. As his pendulum swing slowed, Ryan lowered his arms from his face, and realized that he had managed to hold onto the nymph’s knife.

  He looked up at the vine around his ankle, and took a breath.

  It was like trying to do the worst pull-up/crunch combination in the world in an attempt to reach his ankle.

  In that moment, Ryan wished he had gone to the gym. It took him four tries to finally grab his leg, and he used it to pull himself up into a position where he could reach the vine with his knife.

  He gave a quick glance towards the ground as he pushed the sharp edge of the blade into the vine. He was suddenly acutely aware of just how much this was going to hurt as the vine finally snapped, and he plunged downwards.

 

  Ryan’s back struck the ground, and forced all the air out of his lungs. Unable to breathe, he could only wheeze and wallow in pain as black spots danced in his vision.

  The nymphs were screaming in anger and horror that he had managed to get free.

  He finally managed a gasp of air and took in his condition. He could move everything. It hurt to do so, but everything responded as it should.

  There was movement all throughout the canopy. Whirlwinds of flower petals in every colour and shape blew down to the ground.

  Ryan forced himself up onto his feet through the pain, as nymphs began to appear on the leaf litter all around him.

  They were all roughly the same height as the one he had seen on the branch, but their skin varied in colour greatly. They all matched the colours of whatever flower bloomed in their hair. Some were striking reds or oranges, with blots of yellow or white, while others were more tame purples or blues. Regardless of skin colour, they all wore the same white masks. Some masks were covered in gashes or had pieces chipped off, but these all looked like they had come from battle and were not part of the design.

  Each nymph held a weapon. Most held up rocks, ready to throw them, and a few had spears pointed at him. Only a couple had knives drawn, but he could see that a few others had the knives sheathed in a pouch hung across their shoulders.

  Surrounded, Ryan was forced to hold his ground. His stolen knife was slippery with his own blood, and he wielded it with his right, while in his left, he held one of their sharpened sticks they used as spears.

  “What the fuck do you want?!” Ryan shouted at them, and they all flinched back. He could assume they wanted him dead, but if this was the kind of shit show that Shannon went through, he had difficulty believing it wouldn’t have woken him.

  The blue nymph from before pushed its way forward through the crowd, squeaking some sort of orders as it went. Once at the front of the crowd, it pointed at Ryan aggressively, and babbled in its high pitched speech.

  It pointed to Shannon, then back at Ryan, then gestured at the trees around them, all while speaking.

  Ryan squinted as he tried to understand.

  The nymph pointed to Ryan again, made a clawing gesture and growls, then waved its hands as if trying to shoo him away.

  Well it was clear that they didn’t want him here, “Look, I’m not here because I want to be!” Ryan argued, “I’m lost! Hungry and lost!” He rubbed his stomach with a frown and then made a ‘looking around’ motion that he finished with an exaggerated shrug.

  The blue nymph turned to its brethren and a murmur spread through them as they seemed to discuss in hushed tones.

  A banana yellow nymph jabbed its spear in Ryan’s direction and spoke up. Buttercups dotted its hair.

  The blue nymph replied, and shook its head.

  The yellow nymph appeared to disagree, and argued back. This seemed to spur disagreement among all the other nymphs and loud debate broke out all around Ryan.

  He might not have known exactly what they were arguing about, but he could glean that it was regarding what they should do with him now that he had survived their ambush. Ryan was glad that they seemed so wary of him because he was not at all confident that he could fight them off if they decided to jump him at once.

  Watching them argue only made him more aware of his pain. The leg that had been snared hurt particularly bad and he tried to avoid putting his full weight on it. All the flesh wounds would have sealed by now, and the lesser bruises disappeared, but the deeper bruises and strains were still there. They were also healing slower than normal due to his lack of food energy.

  “You want me gone, right?” Ryan decided to interrupt. He pointed to himself and copied the nymphs shooing motion, “Give me food.” He motioned as if eating, “And point me where I need to go.” He did his best to convey his meaning.

  The blue nymph shouted at him. It grabbed the yellow nymph’s spear and hurled it at Ryan.

  Ryan managed to partially dodge it, batting it away so it hit nothing but the ground. That pissed him off enough to retaliate, and he swung his left arm, holding the spear, forward into the gut of the blue nymph.

  The blue nymph screeched and dropped to the ground in a limp heap.

  The nymphs screamed and broke formation, backing away from Ryan in horror. They threw aside their weapons and put their hands up defensively. A few disappeared into puffs of flower petals.

  The yellow nymph was saying something to him, but Ryan had no idea what it was. He pulled the spear free of the dead blue nymph and noticed it had strange sticky sap-like blood. He remained alert in case any of the others decided to attack him. At this point they were all far away enough from him that he wouldn’t be able to just stab another one without lunging or running forward. The little bastards had caused him enough pain and he would not hesitate to kill another if they tried anything.

 

  Some of the nymphs that had disappeared into flower petals reappeared. Between two of them they carried a basket made of woven grass that appeared to be still alive and growing. They silently approached Ryan, placed the basket by his feet and then disappeared into petals.

  The other nymphs watched with anticipation as Ryan crouched to look into the basket.

  Inside were what looked like five small cooked steaks. Each was roughly three inches in length and about an inch thick.

  Ryan did not have the will to resist, or even wonder what animal the meat was from. He grabbed the top steak and bit it right in half. The thought of the meat being poisoned crossed his mind, but he was too hungry to care.

  The nymphs watched him with baited breath as he finished the steak and moved onto a second one.

  The meat was unseasoned and crudely cooked, but it was the best thing Ryan had ever tasted. He finished it all. It was extremely satisfying, and he found himself craving more.

  Looking up he saw the nymphs watching him expectantly.

  It would take a moment for the food to settle and truly end his hunger, but Ryan already felt significantly better, “Thank you… if you even know what that means.” His relief was so strong he felt on the verge of flopping down to the ground.

  The nymphs seemed to be able to read his gratitude and the tension left them. They began to chatter among themselves excitedly. A few of them began to point East, and when others took notice, they shouted out in agreement before joining in to point as well.

  Ryan made his confusion clear on his face, and the yellow nymph called out to catch his attention. Ryan stood up straight and looked to the nymph.

  The yellow nymph began gesturing enthusiastically. It pointed east, then to the empty grass basket, then to Ryan. It rubbed its belly, pointed to Ryan, and then east again, before making the same clawing and growling gesture that the blue nymph had done earlier.

  Ryan pointed east and mimed eating, in order to confirm if he was understanding the nymph correctly.

  The nymph was ecstatic at being understood and jumped up and down while clapping. Again it pointed east, and this time its next gesture was to put its hands on its hips, straighten its back, and take large stiff steps in place.

  The other nymphs apparently found this gesture hilarious and all broke out into fits of laughter and giggles.

  Ryan found the laughter unnerving, and it made his skin crawl. He didn’t know what the walking in place gesture meant, but he understood that there was food to the east, and that was all that mattered. It would be great to know how far it was, but he wasn’t going to attempt miming out that question.

  He put down the spear and the knife, showing them that his hands were empty. Before he left east, Ryan wanted to find the cultist knife he had lost. It would be far more helpful in killing something.

  Ryan scanned the ground, but didn’t see anything made of metal. The nymphs could have taken it, or just their being there was blocking it from his sight. He decided to try asking them.

  He pointed to the wooden knife he had placed on the ground, and then to himself. He finished by miming searching.

  A deep fuchsia nymph shouted to catch his attention, and pointed up to the upper branches of a stout bush.

  The looped handle of the knife had hooked itself in the branches of the bush, and Ryan immediately walked over to pull it free. Shannon’s cloak would still be on the sandbar with Trevor’s clothes.

  And just where the fuck had Trevor gone?

  Ryan threw the nymphs a thumbs up, gave one last look towards Shannon’s mutilated corpse, and then headed back to the sandbar. The nymphs in his path moved out of his way, and when Ryan looked back to see if the nymphs would take offense at him heading a direction that wasn’t east, they were nowhere to be seen.

 

  The sandbar was just as he had left it. He grabbed the robe in case he had to spend another night out here without a fire, and then looked at the pile of clothes that belonged to Trevor.

  _He’ll have no way of knowing where we’ve gone, and the chances of running into him are slim._ Rye debated whether they should take the clothes.

  Ryan almost jumped at the presence of a voice in his head again. It had been dead silence in there since… since he’d woken up.

  Wait.

  Was that Rye, or was it Demon?

  _OH GOD I DON’T KNOW!_ The voice in his head was nothing but confusion, and he found he couldn’t distinguish who was who anymore.

  Ryan swayed and had to drop himself down onto the sand. What the fuck was going on?! How did neither he nor the voice in his head know who it was? They only had two options to choose from! How were they unable to figure this out?!

  Ryan grabbed either side of his head and remembered some warning about never eating fairy food. He frantically began to question whether nymphs were fairies, and realised he definitely did not know enough about the subject.

  “Who the fuck am I?” Ryan whined, and the sentiment was mirrored throughout his mind. Ever since he attended therapy, he had known who he was. Ryan was Rye and Demon. One was mild mannered and polite, nice to all he met. The other was a murderous fiend driven by instinct.

  If that division was gone… there would be no stopping Demon, no barrier, no _excuse_.

  Worse yet; _there would be no Demon_.

  It would all just be _Ryan._

  He weaved his fingers through his hair and grabbed on tight, he didn’t like this – not one bit. He desperately moaned at being so suddenly helpless.

 

  He’d heard of going out into the wilderness to find yourself. But to suddenly lose yourself?

  This was ridiculous.

 

  The sun had risen enough to begin beaming down on his skin to the degree where it was becoming uncomfortable.

 

  Ryan ran every swear and curse he knew through his mind, and forced himself to his feet. There was food to the east. He could focus on that, and pretend to ignore everything else.

  And once he left these woods, the first thing he would do is get himself a therapist.

 

~*~

 

  They hadn’t slept at all that night. No one was willing to close their eyes after what had happened.

  The circles under Geoff’s eyes had reached new record level of dark. He had kept the spell going right until sunrise and was so tired it felt like his body couldn’t even keep him warm anymore. Man-Bun had given him his robe for warmth, and Geoff still sat right on the edge of their fire pit, shivering. 

  The remaining cooked lotus root was left to Geoff and Man-Bun made the dive into the pond to gather more. Jack was dutifully doting on Geoff, forcing him to finish eating the root and bringing him handfuls of water. It all seemed to irritate Geoff more than anything, but deep down he was thankful.

  Michael watched them with honey-coloured eyes and used a claw to prod a log deeper into the fire.

  “Jack, please. Any more and I’m just gonna piss myself.” Geoff finally pushed Jack away.

  Jack drank the water himself, not wanting to waste it. He dried off his hands on his pants and sat down next to Geoff.

  “So what do you think those things were? I was guessing fae at first, but fae wouldn’t have been scared of Michael.” Geoff tried to fill the dead air.

  Jack shrugged, “You’re right. Maybe it was pixies, or nymphs. I heard dryads can be pretty brutal too.”

  “I always thought of dryads as being more the loner type.” Geoff stated, “And it sounded like there was quite a few of them.”

  “And a naiad will claim a whole pond or lake as their own.” Jack nodded.

  “We can know for sure there’s no naiad since neither Greasy or Man-Bun were drowned.” Geoff added.

  Michael raised his brows at that and looked to Man-Bun who was dragging six water lilies ashore.

  “Pixies or nymphs then.” Jack concluded and lifted his hands to let the fire warm them, “Means we aren’t fully safe during the day either.”

  Geoff scoffed, “There’s a reason they attack in large groups and prefer to go after humans at night. They’re small enough to easily punt half way to the moon. During the day we’re a bigger threat to them than they are to us.” He pulled the robe around himself more tightly, “They probably just want us gone, and were trying to scare us off.”

  Man-Bun was back at the fire and doing his best to dry both himself and the roots, “Scare us?!” He had been listening as he walked up, “They _killed_ Shane!”

  “Pixies and nymphs both fall in the ‘fairy’ family. Like fae.” Jack began.

  “It means that human is particularly tasty to them, and they won’t skip a clear opportunity to get some.” Geoff crudely concluded what he knew Jack was going to explain, “I once bought a property in the country – mostly just land that I wanted to build on. It had this old barn that was just _infested_ with pixies. Fucks are all of six inches tall and have wings. They can also bite like motherfuckers.

  Thankfully us humans are better magic users than pixies, so I was able to wipe the place clean. The whole ‘fairy’ family is funny that way: they have little to no muscle strength and rely entirely on magic. Yet pixies are the weakest of the bunch.

  Although, without magic, even the weakest, littlest, granny could chokehold the most ancient and powerful fae.” Geoff chuckled, “Burnie hates it if you bring it up – says its cheating that humans can live without magic.”

  “You know a Fae?” Man-Bun was surprised.

  Geoff shrugged, “Yeah, and just as you’d expect; he’s an asshole.” He used the term endearingly. He counted Burnie among one of his best friends, but the guy was a fae, and that always made things less straight forward than they should be.

  “And he hasn’t tried to eat or enslave you?” Man-Bun asked as he changed which side of his body was facing the fire.

  “Not as far as I know. Although I did almost lose an arm ‘cause of him. But we’re good. Fae are great at everything magic, and he fixed me up.” Geoff looked deep into the fire as he remembered the incident.

  “That was before we even knew each other, wasn’t it?” Jack asked.

  Geoff nodded, “Yeah, from when I still lived with Gus.” He then yawned.

  “You should take this time to get some sleep.” Jack told him.

  Geoff shook his head, “No we need to get moving. We have to find everyone.”

  “Yes we do, but first we need to cook those lily roots, and that will take some time. Use that time to nap.” Jack turned to Michael, “You too. Chances are high we’ll be spending another night here, and we’ll need both of you to be able to stay awake. Especially if we don’t manage to find anyone before nightfall.”

  “What happens if we find Ryan and he’s… you know.” Geoff asked Jack.

  “Then let’s hope he can’t overpower Michael.” Jack answered.

  Michael shrugged, but assumed he would be fine. He had teeth and claws, and Ryan was, well, he was just Ryan. Even if he became nasty and murderous, there was no way he could go toe to toe with a bear.

  “Ok both of you need to just pass out for a bit, ok?” Jack insisted, “Don’t worry about things like that until we’re face to face with them.”

  “Who’s Ryan?” Man-Bun asked.

  Geoff lay himself down, tightly bundled in the cultist’s robe, “Another asshole.” He muttered.

  “It’s complicated.” Jack told him.

  Michael moved to lay down next to Geoff. He saw how cold and miserable the man looked, and hoped that maybe he could help.

  Seeing the two of them settle down, Jack speared the first of the six lotus roots and placed it over the fire.

  Man-Bun finished up drying himself and got dressed. He sat across from Jack and watched him cook.

  “You can sleep too.” Jack saw his tired eyes, “I’ll wake everyone up at the first hint of something weird.”

  Man-Bun gave him a tired smile, “Thank you.” He stretched out on the ground.

 

  Jack took his time roasting the lotus roots. He wanted to give them all as much time as possible to rest.

  Every little noise and flicker of movement caught his attention as he remained alert for any sign of the creatures from last night. Pixies and nymphs weren’t as smart or powerful as fae, but they could be deceptively clever and resourceful.

  How they had grabbed Shane was enough proof of that.

 Jack looked at Man-Bun and frowned. They should really ask him for his name. It was the least they could do.

  He moved his head to the side to stretch out his neck and groaned as he felt the muscles pull taut. He released the stretch and then pulled the other side. After a few moments he released that stretch as well, and gave a long exhale.

 

  His plan was simple in concept: find everyone, use Jeremy to create a stone surface, draw a circle, get them all back to Austin.

  But it was turning out to be real difficult to find everyone else. Especially now that there was a time pressure from those creatures nipping at their heels.

  And there was always Ryan too. A Smiling Stranger could not be underestimated, even if he didn’t actually know what he was. It was like being stalked by the Big Bad Wolf: when they did find him, they wouldn’t be able to trust him at all. Only once they could be sure he was fed, watered, and rested could they begin to be confident that he wouldn’t try and kill them.

  Jack rubbed his face.

  Worst part?

  They were assuming Ryan was going to end up ‘feral’, and if he didn’t? Well then he’d know they knew something he didn’t. It wasn’t normal to assume someone wanted to eat you, and Ryan was more than smart enough to question it.

  He was already growing visibly suspicious each time Geoff asked him when he’d had his last meal. It would only be a matter of time until Ryan confronted them about it.

 

  Jack pulled the final lotus root off of his stick and placed it next to the others. He looked to the other men sleeping peacefully, and regretted that he had to wake them.

 

  Geoff was difficult to wake, but the others were up almost instantly in fear of another attack. Calming when they saw and smelled the food, Michael helped in shaking Geoff back awake.

  They ate silently and when they finished off one root each, Jack put the remaining two away into Michael’s clothing bundle. After kicking out their fire, they slowly began to make their way around the pond and back into the forest proper.

  Michael had another human scent on lockdown and was leading them between the trees.

  They were moving slower than they had yesterday, but it was a necessary sacrifice with each of them in such a sorry state.

 

  The sun continued its journey overhead and the men forced themselves forward. Each break they took came sooner than the last and lasted steadily longer.

  It was well into the afternoon when they finally spotted a lone out of place boulder that appeared as if it had forcefully pushed itself out of the ground.

  Michael led them right to it, and he looked back at the others with a confused grunt. He could smell human from _within_ the rock.

  Geoff and Jack came to the same conclusion and both yelled, “Jeremy!?”

  From inside the boulder, a muffled response, “Geoff??”

  “Jeremy! You’re safe! It’s us!” Jack shouted at the boulder.

 

  A section of the boulder shifted and then receded down into the ground. Gavin and Jeremy stood inside, wide eyed and in disbelief.

  Realising that it was indeed their friends on the other side, Gavin rushed forward and clung tightly onto Geoff.

  Jeremy looked like he had been through a similar hell as Geoff and fell to his knees in joy.

  “Did you guys manage to find food?” Jack inspected their state with concern. It was clear that they had found water somehow, or they would not be in any state to move.

  Gavin shook his head.

  “Something tried to make us into food.” Jeremy told them.

  Gavin released Geoff, “They looked like little kids, but without faces.”

  Jack pulled the remaining two roots out of Michael’s clothes and gave one each to Gavin and Jeremy.

  “You found potatoes?!” Jeremy immediately bit into his and realised it tasted too off to be a potato, “Or something?”

  “Lotus roots. Eat it all, but don’t make yourself sick.” Geoff instructed them, “Get some strength back.” He gave them a moment to eat a few mouthfuls before asking, “So if you saw the things that tried to eat you, how big exactly were they?”

  Gavin and Jeremy exchanged a look to determine who should speak.

  Jeremy nodded and spoke, “Maybe about a foot to two feet tall.”

  “Nymphs.” Jack concluded.

  “Fuck.” Geoff swore at the confirmation, even though they had already been suspecting it was nymphs.

  “Nymphs?” Gavin asked, “Aren’t those supposed to avoid humanity?”

  “They avoid civilization, but if you venture into their turf, you’re a great meal for the whole clan.” Jack explained.

  “And like with Fae, human is considered tasty.” Geoff added.

  Gavin and Jeremy finished their roots and were both unable to stop smiling. They were ready to flop down and pass out, but knew it was not the time to do so. There were still two members of their group who were missing.

  Jeremy’s eyes widened as he had a realisation, “Water! You guys probably want water!”

  “Water would be awesome.” Geoff replied with a tired smile.

  Gavin waved for them to follow him and led them all over to the river he and Jeremy had found.

  Jeremy pulled out the silver goblet and filled it.  He and Geoff took turns purifying the water until everyone was once more hydrated.

 

  A shout came from the woods to the west of them, making all their heads snap towards it.

  Geoff and Jack slowly got to their feet, listening for any additional noise. Michael lifted his nose and tried to catch a scent.

  “Hello!” The voice was nearer.

  Jeremy jumped to his feet in recognition of the voice, “Trevor!” he shouted back.

  “Jeremy!” Trevor’s voice responded.

 

  The whole group began to rush forward through the forest shouting for Trevor. They crashed through underbrush and trampled saplings, hurrying to meet up with their friend.

  Victorious cheers sounded as they reunited, and Trevor’s tail swung back and forth with glee.

  His tail stilled as his joy at seeing his friends died with the memory of why he had sprinted off to find them, “You guys need to follow me; Ryan’s in trouble!” he turned with a jumped and began to lead them back west, “It’s been hours by this point so I hope he’s still in the woods, but some nymphs captured him.”

  “Shit.” Geoff muttered as he followed Trevor with the rest of the group.

  “What do you mean they captured him?” Jack asked, “We’ve been fighting off nymphs as well, and they seemed pretty hell bent on killing us.”

  “They set up a trap. They carved up Shannon – er – this cultist woman Ryan found and hung her from a tree for us to find. When Ryan approached to investigate, he was grabbed by the leg and pulled up in to trees a good fifteen feet in the air! Then they started tossing rocks and sticks at him!” Trevor explained and caught his breath, “We need to get him back before they have a chance to sell him!”

  “Shannon is dead?!” Man-Bun exclaimed.

  Geoff looked at Jack, “Burnie knew Ryan was… different the second he looked at him. Do you think nymphs would be able to tell as well?”

  Jack knew Geoff was referring to Ryan being a Smiling Stranger, “I don’t know, but if they did, then it would explain why they went through the trouble of setting up such a trap.” Nymphs would be expected to cut up their victims and take them back to cook, so leaving fresh meat in a visible manner was very clearly a trap.

  And how would you attract a Smiling Stranger if not with human meat?

  “Trevor, what do you mean by ‘sell him’?” Jeremy asked.

  “That’s what nymphs do, isn’t it? If they don’t kill someone it’s because they want to sell them off to the fae.” Trevor had heard that somewhere and couldn’t remember where.

  “Ryan would be a terrible purchase.” Geoff mumbled.

  Jeremy overheard, “Are you regretting hiring him?”

  Geoff shook his head, “No, but for a fae he would be nothing but trouble.”

  “I’d argue he’s nothing but trouble for us as well.” Jack expressed.

  “He’s less trouble than the lot of you!” Geoff retorted.

  Jack rolled his eyes, “Let’s just find him.”

 

  Trevor saw how upset the news of Shannon made the man who he did not recognise, "Sorry about Shannon, she seemed pretty chill.” He decided it was best not to mention what Ryan had been planning to do with her, “I’m Trevor, by the way – the skinwalker you were planning on killing.”

  Man-Bun looked sadly apologetic, “Sorry.” He took a deep breath, “My name–”

  Geoff spoke over him, “His name is Man-Bun.”

  Man-Bun’s frown became angry, “What, am I not allowed to have a name?”

  “No.” Geoff was stern in the declaration, “As far as any of us care, you’re nothing but fodder. If you survive these woods, then I’m going to be the one to kill you for trying to hurt Trevor.”

  Jack exhaled, “Come on, Geoff.” He urged.

  Geoff gave Jack a glare, “I may as well tell him the truth!”

  “It’s clear that they had no idea who you are, or that Trevor works for you. You can ease off on the threats while we’re all in the same boat here.” Jack told him.

  Geoff snorted loudly, “Sure.” But it was clear he was in no mood to do so.

  “It’s ok, Geoff.” Trevor assured him, “I knew Shannon’s name, so it’s just fair that we know his as well.”

  “My name’s Emory.” Man-Bun informed them.

  No one seemed to have the energy to respond.

 

  Trevor continued to lead them. Thankfully they were basically following the river, so water wasn’t an issue.

  On his way to find them he had managed to catch and eat two mice. He had almost thrown up after each one, but now they seemed to be keeping him going. He couldn’t help but shudder, remembering how the bones had crunched.

  He knew that the others would be considerably less okay with eating mice, so he kept his eyes, ears, and nose open for any hint of food.

  Every time the group stopped to rest, Trevor would start searching the nearby bushes and leaf litter for any rabbits or berries. Turned out the group was far too noisy for any wildlife to remain anywhere near. There were definitely a few mushrooms around, but upon asking if anyone knew which would be safe, no one seemed confident enough in identifying the fungi.

  Michael tried to help in Trevor’s searches, and even attempted to catch fish in the river. He had returned a sopping wet failure and refused to make eye contact with the others.

 

  The sun wasn’t even close to setting when they decided that they couldn’t travel any further. Everyone’s legs were giving out beneath them and they were forced to stop.

  Trevor was the only one with any energy left, so he went out and tried to desperately find something he knew to be edible.

  He happened upon nettles, acorns, and ferns. He knew all were edible but was pretty sure that they had to be prepared somehow.  With his mouth stinging he gave up on gathering the nettles, and started pulling up as many ferns as he could.

  With a large bundle in his mouth, he returned to their little camp.

  Jeremy had started a small fire, and Michael was using his weight to break up a large branch for wood.

  “Ferns?” Jeremy asked.

  Trevor dropped the bundle by the fire, “They’re edible aren’t they?”

  Gavin eagerly moved forward to inspect the leafy plant, “I know fiddleheads are… I don’t know anythin’ about the whole plant.”

  “Well the other thing I found was nettles, and I am still regretting trying to pick those.” Trevor sat down and flicked his tail.

  “I think ferns are fine…? I know nettles are edible for sure though, but I think they need to be cooked to kill the sting.” Jack looked around to see if anyone would confirm or deny his memory.

  “I think it has to do with bitterness.” Geoff stated, “The fiddleheads haven’t had a chance to start tasting bad… So the nettles might be a better go if we don’t want to puke.”

  “How are we supposed to cook them? We don’t have a pot to boil or like anything…” Jeremy gestured at the fire.

  Michael walked over to Trevor’s fern pile and took a large mouthful. He chewed and made a noise of complaint, shaking his head as if it would clear the flavour.

  “I’ll pay you fifty quid to eat them all.” Gavin bet against Michael.

  Michael’s eyes hardened, and he resumed chewing. He swallowed the ferns and snapped up the rest from the ground. He drooled as he mashed up the rest just enough to swallow. Finishing, he gave several laugh-like rumbles and bared his teeth at Gavin, and then gagged. Satisfied that he had won the bet, he hurried to the river to wash out his mouth.

  “Are bears even supposed to eat leaves? Won’t he get sick?” Emory asked.

  “They’re omnivores, aren’t they? They eat berries and gauk.” Gavin shrugged, “He’s eaten worse for less money.”

  “Ok cool, but what are the rest of us going to eat?” Jeremy hugged his hungry gut.

  “I’m willing to attempt eating roasted nettle leaves.” Jack looked to Trevor, “Where did you see them?”

  “We can probably eat acorns too, if you find some. But those will also be super bitter without being boiled. Worse than any fern.  Also they can back you up, but that would be the least of our concerns at this point.” Geoff didn’t have the strength to go out foraging himself, so he wanted them to know what to look for.

  Trevor’s ears perked up, he had considered acorns, “I saw some acorns around. I don’t know how old they are, but if someone wants to help me, we can bring some back too.”

  Jack moaned as he pushed himself to his feet, “Ok, I’ll help.”

 

  The nettles were nearby – only about thirty feet out from their camp – so Jack was able to grab a bunch using his shirt as protection, drop them off, and then return for more. The acorns took longer to gather. Most were rotten or worm eaten, and it was clear that they were out of season. Jack found only about a dozen he was willing to attempt to eat and brought those back with Trevor following him close.

 

  Back at camp, Jeremy had used the remainder of his magic to alter a stone they had found. He had stretched and flattened it out so it could be laid across the fire or some embers. Exhausted, he lay on the ground with his eyes closed, but was still clearly awake.

  Geoff looked at him with sympathy; with all the magic the two of them had been casting on empty stomachs and with minimal sleep it was surprising they were still functional.

  Gavin pointed to the large bushel of raw nettles, “Michael, another fifty to eat a whole branch raw.”

 “No!” Geoff told them off, “The rest of us need to eat too. I’m cooking it all!” he coughed and then grabbed Michael’s clothing bundle. He dug around and pulled out the pair of jeans. Using them as makeshift gloves he placed Jeremy’s rock over some burning embers and began to pull nettle leaves off their stems.

  Michael watched as Geoff began to pile the leaves onto the stone, and hoped that Geoff wouldn’t burn his pants.

  The ferns had been surprisingly filling, and he felt tired but otherwise fine. They might not be the most energy-filled food, and still had the chance of making him ill, but in the end they had made him fifty bucks.

 

  The nettle leaves shrivelled and darkened as they heated up, much as spinach would. By the time Geoff was done with them, if looked like they had only a quarter of the amount they had started with.

  He split the hot and somewhat gooey plant matter evenly among them (excluding Michael).

  They all looked at the depressingly small pile of mush in their hands.

  Gavin gagged, and appeared reluctant to eat the nettles.

  Jeremy tossed his whole portion into his mouth and did his best to down it all. After swallowing he shuddered and lay back down.

  “It’s really not terrible.” Jack stated as he used his forefinger and thumb to pull a second piece free.

  “No it’s not.” Emory finished up his portion, “Thank you.” He nodded to Geoff

  Geoff didn’t want to accept his thanks, but nodded back anyway.

  Watching everyone else finish their meal, Gavin finally forced himself to eat his. It wasn’t so much the taste or smell setting him off, but the texture. He finished and made a retching noise, but kept everything down.

  Thankfully they had been correct in heat killing the sting.

  “Way better than mice.” Trevor licked the side of his snout.

  “Nooooo – you didn’t actually…?” Jack was flabbergasted.

  “On my way to find you, yeah. It sucked. A lot. But it kept my strength up.” Trevor nodded.

  “That’s disgusting.” Gavin didn’t want to imagine it.

 

  Michael's ear twitched and he lifted his head. He took a sniff and seemed to look around in curiosity.

  Gavin noticed immediately, “What is it, boi?”

  Michael made a non-committal noise and settled back down. It was clear that whatever he had thought he’d heard has passed and was non-threatening.

  “I didn’t sense anything.” Trevor informed them. He then yawned loudly, “We should probably think about setting up an order for watch if we want to sleep.”

  “Sun won’t be setting for an hour still.” Geoff made his best estimate of the time.

  “Yeah, but I’m barely staying awake as it is.” Jeremy pointed out, “And if some of us sleep now, then it means a little less time asleep during the night, which is probably for the better.”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say we’re too large of a group now for the nymphs to try and attack. But I definitely agree that we should have at least one person awake at all times.” Jack agreed.

  “I can take first watch.” Trevor volunteered, “I’ll keep an eye out until I can’t stay awake anymore.”

 

  Trevor was good to his word and kept a careful watch well into the dark. The next watch was to be Emory’s, and once Trevor found himself yawning uncontrollably he walked over to the sleeping man and used a paw to poke him awake.

  After Emory, Gavin was the next watch, and he was woken with a touch to his shoulder.

 

  Gavin yawned and with still drooping eyelids, sat himself facing the woods. He could hear the buzz of insects and chirping of crickets all around, while the fire crackled and popped.

  Back to the fire, Gavin was pleasantly warm, and after an hour or so, he caught himself nodding off. As soon as he noticed he straightened and shook himself, doing his best stay alert. He hadn’t been keeping watch anywhere near long enough to justify waking Jeremy who was next. The poor apprentice warlock needed all the sleep he could get after using magic all day in order to purify the water their group needed.

  Jack had explained his plan to them, and Jeremy was a key player. They needed him nice and strong to cast a large stone surface for Jack to draw on. Without it, they were stuck here regardless of whether or not they managed to find Ryan.

  Gavin yawned. He let his eyelids fall.

  He wasn’t going to see anything in the dark _anyway_. So he may as well focus on listening. He hung his head, and soon had his shoulder on the ground. You didn’t need to be vertical to simply listen.

  Slowly but surely, Gavin’s breathing slowed and turned to gentle snores as he fell back asleep.

 

~*~

 

  Emory was choked awake. His throat was being crushed and a heavy hand was over his mouth. Opening his eyes he saw a face he did not recognise and fear constricted his chest.

  Illuminated by warm firelight, ice-cold blue eyes bored into him. They sat mere inches from his own in the face of an unshaven man. The man’s mouth was twisted into manic grin, and his eyes held only desperate hunger.

  Unable to make a sound, Emory could feel his consciousness fading as his lungs screamed for air. The edges of his vision began to soften and darken, closing in. With the last of his energy he flailed out to the side and his leg managed to strike something.

  The ‘something’ in question was Jeremy.

  The man noticed Jeremy stir. Quick as lightening he released Emory and bolted off into the woods. A few leaves were brushed aside and a stick snapped, but then there was silence, and the man was completely gone.

  Emory gasped for air and began to cough violently.

  Jeremy pushed himself up and saw the cultist coughing as if his life depended on it.

  “What’s going on?!” Jeremy asked.

  The coughing was loud enough that everyone else began to wake.

  Emory thought he was going to puke as the coughing wracked his frame. No matter how hard he tried to breathe, his throat felt too narrow. The man had nearly crushed his windpipe, and Emory found he was unable to swallow.

  “What happened?” Jack pushed himself up off the ground.

  Jeremy got to his feet and approached Emory, “Are you alright? Can you breathe?” he crouched over him.

  “The hell is happening?!” Geoff sat up.

  Michael got to his feet and watched as Trevor and Gavin also approached the cultist.

  Emory pointed to the woods in the direction the man had disappeared off to. He spoke with a hoarse whisper of a voice, “A man. Tried to kill me.” Each word had to be forced out and sent daggers of pain through his neck.

  Geoff was suddenly all concern, “A man? What did he look like?!”

  “Blue eyes.” Emory pushed from his throat.

  “Fuck.” Geoff stood and looked off into the direction Emory had pointed.

  “Do you think it’s…?” Jack didn’t want to finish the question, and got to his feet.

  Everyone was now on their feet with their backs to the fire. They scanned the darkness for even the slightest sign of something hiding within.

  Geoff decided to risk it. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “RYAN?! Is that you out there?!”

  “You don’t think Demon’s got control of him, do you?” Gavin’s eyes were wide and all vestiges of sleep were gone.

  “That would be bad.” Jeremy stated and strained to see something, anything.

  “Ryan, if it’s you, please let us know.” Jack was on the same page as Geoff.

  Michael stood up on his hind legs and tried to catch a scent or sound.

  “Anything?” Geoff asked the bear.

  Michael shook his head.

  “Whatever it is, it’s staying downwind.” Trevor informed them.

  “Ryan, buddy, we have food, ok?” Geoff tried. It wasn’t totally true, but there were still some acorns, “You don’t need to do this.”

  “Food?” Ryan’s voice was eerily close. After saying the word, he broke down into sick unhinged laughter, “You ARE food!” The laughter returned as deranged cackling.

  They all moved close to each other, forming a fearful line in front of the fire.

  Geoff forced himself to swallow. His gut had turned to cold stone and plummeted. It was suddenly very easy to imagine Ryan in an institution.

  Jack was also visibly anxious, with fear clear in his eyes.

  Ryan’s laughter died off, and the trees were silent. As if nothing had occurred at all.

  Emory gingerly touched his throat.

  “Ryan, just show yourself! We’re all awake now, you can’t ambush us again.” Jack attempted to logically lead him away.

  Something hit the ground and broke a branch off to their right. Right afterwards, some leaves shook and slapped against each other.

  “Ryan…” Geoff made his tone one of warning.

  Emory didn’t know where to point his attention, and only felt remotely safe with the fire right behind his back.

 

  Ryan was no more than a blur as he leapt from the woods directly in front of them. With inhuman speed he barreled into Emory.

  Emory was pushed into their campfire with Ryan on top of him, holding him down. Ryan’s left hand was on Emory’s shoulder, and his right was gripping a knife that was now shoved deep into the cultist’s gut.

  Emory screeched like a banshee as his clothes ignited and his skin was pressed against burning embers. The pain from the fire was so overwhelming that he didn’t even know he had been stabbed.

  All he could see were Ryan’s glacial eyes wreathed by orange flame.

 

  Michael roared and with a powerful backhand he hit Ryan. Ryan was thrown from Emory and rolled across the ground.

  Jack and Jeremy pulled Emory from the fire, but upon seeing the damage and the dagger, knew there would be no saving him.

  Ryan was partially stunned by the impact of Michael’s paw, and stopped his roll flat on his back. He made to spring back to his feet.

  With another roar Michael jumped on top of Ryan, using his forepaws to pin down his arms and stop him from attacking anyone else.

 

  There was nothing but murderous fury in Ryan’s eyes, and he bared his teeth at Michael with a savage snarl.

  Michael didn’t know how to respond, so he displayed his teeth back with a low growl. He felt Ryan struggle under his paws in an attempt to free his arms. He was surprisingly strong, and Michael had to sink his claws into the soil to stop Ryan from squirming free.

  The air in Michael’s lungs was forced from him as Ryan brought up his legs and kicked upward into Michael’s chest. Ryan hit him so hard that it removed enough weight from his arms to allow him to free himself.

  Ryan was on his feet instantly. His shoes kicked up dirt and leaves as he made a run for the knife in Emory’s gut.

  Everyone else hurried to get out of his path in fear of what he would do to them if he managed to lay hands on them. They were all shouting and screaming at him in terror.

  Michael had had enough. With teeth and claws he pounced on Ryan, tearing clothes and skin.

  Ryan cried out in pain as claws raked his lower back and teeth sunk into his right thigh. He was back on the ground with Michael on top of him again, but this time, Michael was using all four paws to pin down Ryan’s arms and legs. He was face down and fully restrained, unable to twist or pull free.

  Michael growled in loud anger at Ryan, and Ryan did his best to turn his head and face him.

  The anger and desperation in Ryan’s expression melted away, leaving worry and fear, “Oh my god, Michael, Demon didn’t hurt you did he? What about that man, is he still alive?”

  Michael moved his head back and blinked at the change in personality. Had Rye regained control?

  “Demon took control and,” Ryan’s eyes began to glisten, growing wet, “Please tell me he’s not…”

  Michael uttered a soft sorrowful moan and released Ryan.

  Carefully and slowly, Ryan returned to his feet. It was clear he was trying to convince them he was no longer a threat.

  “Michael! Why did you let him go?!” Jack looked up from Emory to see Ryan edging his way towards them.

  Geoff’s head whipped around at Jack’s words, “Michael!” He barked, “We can’t trust him, not now! Keep him down!”

  Ryan saw Michael ready himself to jump him again, so he threw out his arms and took a defensive posture, “Wait, wait! I’m fine!”

  Michael hesitated and looked back to Geoff and Jack.

 

  Emory exhaled and fell still. Most of his clothing had been burned off, along with his hair. Jeremy quickly moved to check for a pulse, and found none. The cultist was dead.

  Jeremy didn’t have to say anything for the group to understand.

  All eyes went to Ryan.

  Ryan swallowed, “Ok look. He’s dead now _anyway_ , we might as well _put him to use._ ” He tried to gently suggest. His tongue flicked over his lips and his gaze darted downwards to the body.

  “If you think we’re gonna let you eat him like you wanted to eat Shannon, you’re insane!” Trevor yelled at him.

  Gavin looked to Ryan horror-struck, “You what?!”

  “What are we gonna do? Bury him? Meat is meat! This way he can help us survive!” Ryan continued his argument, “You can’t possibly want to waste such a valuable resource?”

  They remained silent and stared at him.

  Ryan licked his lips, “Alright, I’m not gonna force _you_ to partake, but if I could just,” He inched his way closer.

  “Ryan…” Geoff warned. The last thing he needed was for Ryan to discover that he liked the taste of human. It would be one rabbit hole there would be no return from.

  “He’s already dead: it’s not like I can hurt him any more… Where’s the harm?” Ryan attempted to flash them a smile, but it was jerky, much like a tick, and only ended up making him look more insane. He had intended to calm them, but it had had the opposite effect, “It’s just survival!” he argued.

  “Michael, please hold him down again.” Jack calmly said without removing his eyes from Ryan.

 

  Michael took a step towards Ryan, and Ryan lunged forward on top of Emory.

  Ryan grabbed the knife and cut a swath of charred skin from Emory’s shoulder as several pairs of arms wrapped around his neck, arms, and body.

  Jack had both his arms around Ryan’s neck and Geoff was using all his weight to restrain Ryan’s right arm. Jeremy wrestled with Ryan’s left arm, and Trevor clamped his jaws down on an ankle.

  Ryan growled from deep within his throat.

  Michael rushed over, but wasn’t sure how to approach the mess.

  Gavin tried to cover Ryan’s eyes, but jumped back in fear of losing a finger when Ryan snapped at him.

  “You’re being irrational!” Ryan screamed at them. After his initial surprise at having all of them jump him, he had easily started to overpower their attempts at restraining him. Their weight made his movements abrupt and difficult to control, but they wouldn’t stop him. Not now, not when he was so close to a meal.

  He dropped the knife and closed his fingers around the strip of skin. It wasn’t totally free, so he would have to tear it off, but it wouldn’t be an obstacle–

  Geoff saw Ryan grab the charred flesh, and knowing he wouldn’t be able to pull him away, he panicked and did the first thing he could think of to make Ryan let go.

 

  He bit Ryan. Right on the back of his hand.

  Ryan hollered, released the flesh, and yanked his hand back, pulling himself free of Geoff’s teeth and his arms.

  Michael saw this as an opportunity. He swatted Emory’s body out of Ryan’s reach and nudged Jack.

  Jack and Jeremy released Ryan, and before Ryan had a chance to do anything about it, Michael dropped himself down onto him with his full weight.

  Ryan wheezed under the ton of bear crushing him, “This isn’t fair!” his left arm was under Michael, but his right was free to claw at the ground in desperation, “You can’t do this!” he sounded pained, “ _I’M SO HUNGRY!”_

  Geoff spat and wiped his mouth. He was less than impressed by his decision to bite Ryan, but it had worked.

  “PLEASE!” Ryan begged them, “ _Please!_ ” after that last ‘please’ his words broke down into more animalistic fare.

  “Jeremy are you good to make a six by six slab of stone?” Jack wanted to get them home. Now. Ryan was in a bad state, but they were all together, and the longer they waited the more likely something would go wrong.

  Ryan did his best to try and punch Michael on top of him. It was an awkward angle, and although Michael made sounds of complaint, it was clear they he wasn’t really hurting him.

  Jeremy saw Ryan trying to free himself while snarling like some wild animal, and knew that Jack was right in his haste. He didn’t feel as if he were in any state to cast magic, but he had to. He lowered himself and put his hands on the ground, willing every last bit of his energy to come forward.

  The dirt below him shifted and a rumble ran through the ground. Soil heaved upward, pushed from below by a large stone mass. A tree swayed dangerously and began to topple as its roots were expelled from the earth.

  Geoff threw forward his own magic to ensure that the tree fell in a safe direction.

  Jeremy finished his spell and fell to his knees panting. Underneath him was a large hump of stone about a foot higher than the surrounding forest floor. It wasn’t exactly 6x6 but it was close enough.

  Seeing Jeremy’s exhaustion, Geoff decided to take over the finishing touches. He wasn’t naturally adept with stone like Jeremy, but he knew how to work it. He closed cracks and holes on the stone’s exterior and then pushed out the hump into a flat surface.

  Jack went to what remained of their fire and snatched up charcoal that was cool enough to work with. He burned himself twice, but didn’t have time to moan about it.

  Jeremy crawled off of his stone plateau as Jack jumped up onto it with hands full of black.

  Michael watched as best as he could. Ryan was tearing at his fur, and would make a grab for his face if he let it get too close. He winced each time Ryan tore a handful of fur from his hide, but didn’t want to risk repositioning in case Ryan pulled himself free. The man was absolutely livid, and spittle dotted his beard. At this point Michael wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan were to start foaming at the mouth.

  Jack hadn’t been lying about the circle being too complex for dirt. He worked as quick as he could, but wasn’t even a quarter of the way done. Small intricate swirls and precise angular lines poured from him as if he were writing a passionate letter.

 

  It took a solid forty minutes for Jack to finish the circle.

  By that point even Ryan had calmed, completely exhausted. He lay still on the ground, his arm extended towards Emory’s body, and his eyes locked on that goal.

  Jack stepped back and hopped off of the stone. He touched his fingertips to the outside of the drawn circle, and the charcoal lines ignited into blue light. He uttered a few words, and a shockwave exploded outwards from the circle, whipping up a gale.

  A dot of near white light appeared four feet above the center of the circle. With a second shockwave, the dot enlarged to be ten feet in diameter. Its edges continued to burn white, but the center was dark. After all the light, it took a moment to make out shapes in the darkness. There were hard angular forms, clearly constructed, and small red lights from electronics. Couches, an entertainment center, and a table - It was Jack’s living room.

  “Geoff, Gavin, Jeremy, Trevor, go through and clear my floor right next to the portal.” Jack ordered them, “Michael, stay where you are for now.”

  They were all too eager to leap through the portal into Jack’s living room. As if the portal were a window, the men were visible. They flicked on the lights and could be seen heaving Jack’s table and couch aside, before moving away to watch with cautious interest.

  Jack ran to the fire, grabbed more charcoal, and then stepped through the portal. On his living room floor he began to draw a large devil’s trap.

  Finishing the trap, Jack stuck his head through the portal back into the forest, “Ok Michael, this might be tricky, but we need you to toss Ryan through and then do your best not to get hurt by him when you come in after him. The trap should hold him.”

  “You can do it, boi!” Gavin encouraged him.

  Geoff spoke next, “Remember that the bastard can heal, so don’t be afraid to be rough with him if you have to!”

  Michael turned his head to look at Ryan, only to meet his eyes. Ryan was staring him down, daring him to try. He looked back to Jack and saw that the others had left the living room, upon wondering where they had gone, Geoff returned with Tupperware and was downing the contents.

  He evaluated the best way to move Ryan. Shifting his weight, he managed to pin Ryan’s right arm with a paw, and then used his jaws to grab his neck. Michael’s mouth was so large that he easily enveloped the entirety of Ryan’s neck.

  Ryan seemed sobered by the vulnerable position, and he went stiff. He wasn’t going to continue fighting when there was a canine the size of his thumb pressing up on his jugular.

  Michael dragged Ryan up onto the stone and through the portal. Jack’s living room felt far too small for a creature his size. He pulled Ryan into the devil trap, and the instant he let him go, he bolted out of the trap.

  Ryan was instantly up on his feet, glaring daggers at everyone.

  Jack let the portal collapse shut, and he ran to his kitchen where everyone else was raiding his fridge and pantry. He grabbed all the highest protein foods he could find. They consisted of old leftover roast which was _probably_ still fine, and a bag of jerky. He tried to take a foam container of take-out BBQ from Trevor and Jeremy, but they both fought him over it, and he decided against it.

  Returning to the living room he threw the food into the devil’s trap. Ryan was immediately on top of it, tearing through the bag and into the jerky first.

  Satisfied that he was dealt with for the time being, Jack went and grabbed food of his own. Michael was in the kitchen now too, and his large head was deep in the fridge.

  For the next good while the house was silent save for the sound of five men, a fox, and a bear eating their first real meals in two days.

  Once basic survival needs were satisfied, they began to concern themselves with everything else that they needed.

  Michael and Trevor raided Jack’s closet and then each took a bathroom. They returned to human form, cleaned themselves and dressed as best they could.

  Jack had only two phone chargers, so both were in the wall and being used. Once there was enough battery to make a call, Gavin called Meg, and Michael called Lindsay.

  After devouring the roast, Ryan appeared more himself, and curled up on the edge of his trap, promptly falling asleep.

  Jeremy and Geoff were the next to hit the bathrooms, with Gavin impatiently waiting for Meg to arrive.

  Meg warped into the main hall with Lindsay on her arm.

  Lindsay charged Michael on sight and squeezed him tight.

  Meg also went to embrace her man, but stopped herself upon seeing Gavin’s state. He was absolutely filthy, and smelled like – well, he smelled like he had spent two days in the woods with no deodorant or shower.

  Gavin wasn’t at all fazed, he laughed and grabbed Meg anyway, “I call dibs on the bathroom when we get home.”

  Meg laughed and pushed herself free of him, “Yeah, you need it!” she noticed Ryan on the ground, “Oh my god, is he ok?” She approached the living room, “What happened to him?”

  “He’ll be fine.” Jack told her, “I’m sure Gavin will fill you in on the whole story, but Ryan had a hard go of things.

  “ _He_ had a hard go?!” Michael snorted, “I was his punching bag!” there was no real anger directed at Jack, “You’re all only alive because I was there.”

  “Ryan was willing to go full cannibal.” Gavin explained, “Demon was like a wild animal. Bloody tried to eat a guy and would have probably gone after us next.”

  “Woof.” Lindsay lacked a proper response.

  “Oh god.” Meg covered her mouth.

  “I’m going to have nightmares, I know it.” Gavin stated.

 

  After that, Gavin was itching to go home, get clean, and then sleep, so Meg instructed the four of them to lock arms, and she warped them away.

  With them gone, Geoff gathered everyone who was left, “Ok guys. We’re going to have discuss Ryan and what happened. I’d say go home and we meet again after a day, but all our cars are out.”

  “I’m fine with all of you sleeping here.” Jack offered, “It’s not like I’m about to wake and try to move Ryan.”

  Jeremy dropped himself onto a couch, “I don’t have the energy to do anything but sleep. Don’t bother worrying about bedding or blankets. I’m fine here.” He stretched out and rolled onto his side.

  “Honestly I feel the same.” Trevor was somehow still managing to remain on his feet.

  Jack looked at Jeremy on one couch and Ryan on the floor, “Ok. Trevor, take this couch.” He pointed to the second couch, and turned to Geoff, “You can take the large lay-z-boy in my office.”

  Geoff was pleased with that offer and went off upstairs to the spare bedroom Jack had made into an office.

  Jack was ready to drop, but he still felt as if he shouldn’t leave Ryan on the floor. He left and returned with a throw pillow, blanket, and a two litre bottle of coke. It wasn’t diet as he knew Ryan preferred, but figured that they could all use the sugar at this point. Satisfied, he trudged up the stairs into his room.

 

~*~

 

  Trevor woke and rolled himself over on the couch. Bright sunlight was spilling into the living room. Jeremy still snored away on his couch, and when Trevor looked down to the floor in the center of the room, he saw Ryan was awake as well.

  Ryan was sitting leaned up against the invisible wall of the trap. A blanket hung over his shoulders, and in his lap was a throw pillow. He absently picked at a loose thread, before noticing that Trevor was watching him.

  Trevor decided to break the silence, “Hey.” He greeted softly.

  “Hey.” Ryan replied quietly.

  “So, uh, how’re you feeling?” Trevor asked. Ryan seemed sane once again, but he had already shown himself to be excellent at faking it.

  Ryan chuckled to himself, “As good as I can be, I guess.”

  “Don’t want to eat anyone?” Trevor decided to be direct.

  Ryan’s shoulders drooped, “No. Definitely not.” He sighed and pulled the pillow closer, “But I do need to pee.”

  Trevor saw the almost empty coke bottle and was sympathetic. He got himself up and approached the devil’s trap.

  Ryan watched him, but didn’t move.

  “How do you break this thing?” Trevor crouched down and looked at the charcoal.

  “You sure you want to?” Ryan asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Trevor rubbed the charcoal with his thumb, smearing a small portion away.

  Ryan fell backward as the trap broke, and threw out an arm to catch himself. The invisible wall was gone.

  Trevor stepped back, “There.” He put a hand on his hip and looked to Ryan.

  Ryan stood and exited the circle. He gave Trevor a thankful nod and hurried off to the bathroom.

  Trevor yawned and sat down on his couch. He could hear the toilet flush, and shower start. Ryan was clearly taking the opportunity to clean up.

 

  Ryan leaned his forehead against the cold tile as hot water pounded his shoulders and back. Soil and old blood ran down his skin and spiraled away into the drain.

  Replaying the events from the previous night over and over in his head, his jaw clenched and he swallowed a pained noise. What had he been thinking?

  Had that even been him?

  He lifted his head and let it drop back into the hard tile with a thump. He had no one to blame – it had all been him. He could remember every action and thought and how they had all made perfect sense. How they _still_ made perfect sense.

  Who was he?

  _What_ was he?

  He shouldn’t have been able to move like that, to have that kind of strength. Yet he had, and all without Demon.

  Where was that bastard?!

  _Well, I might be him. Or you are. Or we_ both _are._

  Ryan forced himself to swallow. He’d have to pretend that everything was normal. If anyone found out that there was no longer a divide between Demon and him, he would lose everything.

  And just as he’d finally found people who cared enough about him not to leave him behind when all logic dictated that they should have.

  They hadn’t needed to spend the extra time in the woods looking for him. They could have left.

  Upon finding him they could have just escaped and let him eat the cultist.

  He wouldn’t have stopped them. Not in the mindset he’d had. That cultist had been his ultimate goal, nothing else had mattered. The future wouldn’t exist until he’d finished eating.

  It frightened him how single-minded and driven he’d been. His hunger had become his world, his sole reason.

  Ryan straightened and blinked, “Wait…” the word was barely a breath. Hadn’t Geoff been recently hounding him with questions about food and when he had last eaten?

  Was this what he had wanted to avoid? And if so, _what did that bastard know?!_

  Ryan grew angry. Geoff was keeping something from him, and Ryan needed to know what it was.

  He pushed his anger to the back of his mind and finished washing up with renewed energy. He dried and looked at his pile of filthy clothes.

  Wrapping a towel around his waist he left the bathroom in search of Jack’s laundry machines.

 

  Ryan found the washer and dryer tucked away in a small hallway leading to the garage. He set the load to small, dumped in some extra soap and started it up. He felt like he didn’t really have to option to return to the living room, and although he wanted to raid Jack’s closet for a robe or some temporary clothes, the quiet in the house implied that everyone but he and Trevor were still asleep.

  Quiet footsteps crept up the hall, and Ryan turned to meet them.

  Trevor’s head appeared in the doorway. He saw Ryan in the towel and the running laundry, “Oh! Sorry, I just heard noises and was curious what they were. I’ll just leave.” He disappeared from the doorway abruptly, clearly feeling awkward about the whole situation.

  Ryan thought about it, and realised that the sounds could have indeed appeared suspicious. He couldn’t blame Trevor coming over to check. Ryan knew that Trevor was probably worried about him doing something violent or murderous, and how it would be seen as his fault for breaking the trap.

  He sat himself down on the dryer and waited.

 

~*~

 

  Jack glared at Geoff angrily from his wheeled office chair, “I thought we had agreed on this.”

  Geoff was still fully reclined in the lay-z-boy, “I think he has a right to know after all this shit.”

  “This isn’t about whether he has a right to know or not. This is about whether he _should_ know.” Jack argued.

  “I think so. He has no idea, and is going to be asking questions. Yeah, he’ll be pissed we kept it secret, but not as pissed as when he finds out on his own.

  You saw him. He wanted that human meat like nothing else, and was rationalising it as survival or logic. If he knew what he was he’d know it was instinct. And I think that if he knows what’s instinct, he can consciously decide not to act on it.” Geoff explained.

  “Or he can decide that since that’s what he’s _supposed_ to do, he may as well do it.” Jack retorted.

  “Dude, we have instincts too. We can control them because we know what they are. Let’s give him the same option.” Geoff grabbed the handle on the side of his seat and pulled himself back into an upright position. He folded his hands on his lap, “We can’t hang him out to dry here.”

  Jack rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses, “We can’t risk justifying Demon’s actions. Rye has a hard enough time with him already. He still thinks of Demon as being some evil entity, and does all he can to suppress it. If we say that Demon is nothing but instinct, it will only strengthen his arguments, and potentially give him further control over Ryan’s actions and thoughts.”

  “That’s entirely hypothetical and rooted in nothing.” Geoff scratched at his beard, “If you want to keep this a secret so bad, then it’s your job to field all his questions. And he’s a smart fucker, so good fucking luck.”

  Jack looked irritated, “Yeah, sure, just make him even more suspicious when all you ever answer him with is: ‘talk to Jack’.”

  “That sounds like _your_ problem.” Geoff pointed both index fingers at Jack.

  “Geoff…” Jack warned.

  “What? I told you my opinion on the matter.” He got himself up out of the plush armchair, “If you’re so dead set on continuing the lie, then I’m going to go and make myself breakfast instead of sitting here wasting my breath.”

  “Don’t tell me that you can’t at least see my side of things.” Jack also stood. If Geoff was going to cook, he definitely wanted to be there for it.

  “Oh I do. I get it, but I just think you’re wrong.” Geoff left the room and began to head downstairs.

  Jack followed, “Just back me up on this one. Please. Just for a little longer.”

  “Fine.” Geoff stated without feeling.

  Jack decided he had no choice but to be satisfied with that answer.

  They reached the main floor and passed by the living room.

  Geoff and Jack both stopped when they saw that the devil’s trap was empty. Trevor lay on one couch completely at ease, and Jeremy was still asleep.

  Seeing Geoff and Jack, Trevor sat up, “’Sup?”

  “Where’s Ryan?” Jack immediately asked.

  Trevor understood his concern and smiled, “He’s just doing laundry so he has something to wear. I let him out earlier. He’s back to normal.”

  Geoff shrugged and continued to the kitchen while Jack left to go to the laundry room.

 

  Jack found Ryan in front of an open dryer, shirtless and doing up the fly on his jeans.

  Ryan looked up and appeared somewhat cowed, “I, uh, hope it’s ok that I used your laundry machine.” He pulled his shirt out of the dryer and quickly put it on.

  Jack saw all the holes and tears in the shirt and his jeans. It looked like Ryan had been stabbed several times.

  Ryan noticed Jack’s gaze and ran a finger through a hole in his shirt, “Uh, yeah. The nymphs threw some spears at me and a few hit hard enough to break through.” He laughed nervously.

  Jack remained silent and Ryan shifted his weight from foot to foot awkwardly.

  “I’m sorry about that whole mess.” Ryan blurted and looked away while rubbing the back of his neck.

  Jack shook his head, “Don’t apologise on Demon’s behalf.”

  Ryan nodded curtly, “Still though. Sorry.”

  Jack sighed and waved Ryan over, “Come on. Geoff is making breakfast.”

 

  They entered the kitchen to the sound of sizzling bacon and frying eggs. Jeremy had been woken and sat at the table with Trevor, while Geoff was going through Jack’s cutlery.

  Counting out the right number of forks he dumped them on the table and returned to cooking.

  Plates had already been placed, so Jeremy divided up the forks as Jack and Ryan joined them at the table.

  “How ya doing?” Jeremy asked Ryan when he sat down.

  “I’m fine. I promise.” Ryan answered.

  Geoff heavily placed a large plate of bacon on the table, “Not in the mood to try and eat anyone?”

  Ryan shook his head, “God no.”

  “Well, I mean, who _hasn’t_ thought about it, right?” Jeremy stated and received a bunch of mildly concerned looks, “Oh come on, like you haven’t wondered what ya taste like.”

  Trevor frowned and nodded.

  Jack was quick to change the topic, “How did you manage to find us anyway?”

  Geoff returned with a plate of toast that he set down next to the bacon, “That’s a good question. Did you see our fire or something?”

  Ryan shook his head, “No. It was the nymphs. They told me there was food to the east, so I headed east and it turned out to be where you guys were.”

  “The nymphs knew English?” Trevor cocked his head.

  “Ok they didn’t _tell_ me. We had an awkward exchange of gestures back and forth until we could understand each other.” Ryan explained.

  “Was this before or after they stabbed you with pointed sticks?” Jack asked.

  “Had to be after. They started attacking us immediately.” Trevor informed him.

  Ryan nodded, “After I managed to cut myself down from their snare, they surrounded me with their weapons held high. It was clear that they were pretty wary of me after I survived their pelting and got loose.

  And I may have also killed a blue one that could have been their leader… or something.

  After that they finally tried to communicate and it was clear that they just wanted me gone. So I did my best to mime being lost and hungry.” He shrugged.

  “And they pointed you in our direction?” Jack gave a quick look over his shoulder to ensure Geoff was listening while he finished up the eggs.

  “They probably assumed you had food. Or there was something edible further out.” Ryan posed.

  Geoff returned again with a plate full of fried eggs. He sat himself down and everyone began to fill their plates.

  It was awesome to have a hot meal again, and they all dug into their breakfast. Geoff’s cooking was excellent, and although the meal was simple, it was wonderfully flavourful.

  Ryan finished off an egg and reached over to grab some more bacon, “So Geoff,” he began.

  “Yeah?” Geoff flipped a piece of egg onto his toast.

  “Have you found out anything about me that I should know about?” Ryan bit off a piece of bacon and watched Geoff carefully for any kind of reaction.

  “You mean Demon, right?” Jack surprised Ryan by intercepting the question.

  “Yeah. About Demon.” Ryan corrected himself.

  “What makes you ask?” Geoff deflected the question.

  The deflection did not go unnoticed by Ryan, “I’ve just been thinking about last night, and find it kind of a coincidence that lately you’ve been asking me when the last time I ate was.”

  “Huh,” Geoff seemed to think about it, “You’re right: it is a weird coincidence.”

  Ryan’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, clearly not believing it.

  Geoff wasn’t blind to it, “Dude, I love to cook. Just ask Jack and he’ll tell you that if I so much as even suspect someone of being hungry, I’m gonna try and feed them.” He hoped the lie sounded natural.

  Jeremy clucked his tongue.

  “What?” Geoff turned on him.

  Jeremy put down his fork, “I asked if I could stay for dinner once and you told me to go fuck myself.”

  Ryan raised an eyebrow at that.

  “Yeah, that’s because you’re a freeloader!” Geoff tried to pour anger into the words, and hoped he wouldn’t end up insulting Jeremy.

  Jack jumped in, “Ok guys. Let’s just finish our meal, shall we? We’re all still pretty tired and grumpy from spending two nights out in the wilderness. Let’s try not to bite each other’s heads off here.”

  “Literally.” Trevor added and shot a covert look to Ryan.

  Ryan caught it and couldn’t help but flash a smirk. He wasn’t done with this conversation, and debated how hard he wanted to push it, “If you or Jack find anything though, just promise you’ll let me know, alright?”

  Geoff nodded, “Yup.”

  “Will do.” Jack told Ryan.


End file.
